On 22nd June, the Bolivian House of Representatives approved a bill to denounce the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, in an effort to protect the traditional right of Bolivian people to chew coca leaves. Read more information, in Spanish.
To mark the 40 years of US President Nixon's war ond rugs, IDPC and 74 Latin American groups call for a new focus in drug policies that encompasses social development, education, universal healthcare, and human rights and fundamental freedom.
In the second episode of a two-part series, Josh Rushing and the Fault Lines team find out how campesino communities caught in the narco-economy are resisting repression and dispossession.
The UK Sentencing Council initiated a consultation process in order to produce definitive sentencing guidelines for drugs offences for the UK in the coming year. The IDPC submission to the Sentencing Council focused on three issues: the need to make a clear distinction between different actors in the drug market according to their motivation and related actions; the need to reduce the overall severity of sentencing for supply offences; and the need to give non-custodial sentences for people who cultivate or possess cannabis for medical use.
The Irish Press Ombudsman made a historic decision on 12th June, deciding in favour of a coalition of national and international drug services against the Irish Independent for a column by Ian O’Doherty which described drug users as “vermin”, “feral, worthless scumbags” and proclaimed that “if every junkie in this country were to die tomorrow I would cheer”.
In this joint statement, GBCHealth and the Global Commission on Drug Policy call for a new approach to drug policy that prioritises public health and human rights, and facilitates the scaling up of effective HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.
More than 3000 people came together at the United Nations in New York for the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS in June to take stock of the progress and challenges of the last 30 years and shape the future AIDS response. In this Political Declaration, countries agreed to advance efforts towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV and halving HIV infection among people who inject drugs by 2015. The Political Declaration is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.
The National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi (NRC) and UNODC are collaborating to review the framework and objectives of an assessment study on the current drug policy situation in the United Arab Emirates, which will lead to a review of the country's anti-drug strategy.
Although broadening drug control cooperation beyond the traditional top-down bilateral focus is often viable and preferable, ironically, the current trilateral draft agreement overlooks existing successful multilateral collaboration and could provoke and deepen divisions.
In an unprecedented decision, the Bombay High Court struck down the mandatory death penalty for drug offences, becoming the first Court in the world to do so.
Over 200 leading international NGOs have backed the Beirut Declaration on HIV and Injecting Drug Use calling on world leaders to scale up harm reduction programmes that address the role of injecting drug use in the AIDS epidemic.
In this statement, the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions assesses how the possible introduction of the Weed Card will affect inbound tourism.