This report contains the findings of an economic research estimating the financial costs of the penalization of drug possession for personal use in Poland. The research and the report presenting its outcomes (published in December 2009) were done by the Institute for Public Affairs in Poland. The results are very interesting and in times of economic crisis are becoming a powerful tool in the drug policy debate.
Each year the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (ЕHRN) issues a yearly note with a review of events in the sphere of harm reduction that took place in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia.
This is a recent article on the Beckley Foundation’s Global Cannabis Commission Report that appeared in Drugs and Alcohol Today. The original report was published in October 2008, and was presented in the House of Lords and at the UN High Level Segment in Vienna in March. It was very well received and has exerted considerable influence since.
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) has produced a documentary featuring Transform's recent publication, 'After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation'.
This paper discusses four areas of contradiction of the UN drug control system and the core values of the UN: sovereignty and jurisdiction; human rights; the promotion of solutions to international economic, social, health and related problems; and the maintenance of international peace and security.
Human Rights Watch have released this new report which documents how the Chinese authorities commit human rights abuses in the name of drug treatment. Many suspected drug users are confined under horrific conditions, subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and forced to engage in unpaid laborin compulsory drug detention centres.
Drug Policy and the Public Good presents, in a comprehensive, practical, and readily accessible form, the accumulated scientific knowledge on illicit drugs that has direct relevance to the development of drug policy on local, national, and international levels. This editorial presents an overview of the findings collected in this paper.
The authors sought to investigate non-fatal overdose experiences and responses to overdose among a community-recruited sample of injection drug users (IDU) in Bangkok, Thailand.
Unless alternative livelihoods are already firmly in place, eradication of coca and opium poppy crops is counter-productive, according to a new WOLA study that identifies ten lessons learned for promoting alternative livelihoods, based on decades of evidence in countries from Thailand and Burma to Afghanistan and the Andes.
Afghanistan remains the world’s largest producer of opium and has an under-reported but growing heroin-use problem. Current drug control policies in Afghanistan lack focus and are unrealistic, driven by headlines rather than evidence. They reflect a need for immediate signs of hope rather than a serious analysis of the underlying causes and an effort to achieve long-term solutions.
Watch the opening speech of the DPA director at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in New Mexico (November 12 -14, 2009). He said "right now the wind is at our back" - highlighting how the drug policy reform movement has an unprecedented momentum to end the drug war in the United States.
