While repressive drug policies have weaponised the state against communities of colour, it is sadly crucial to remember it was in part designed to do just that.
As prisons in South East Asia are dangerously overcrowded, the release of prisoners incarcerated for drug offences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is a matter of life and death.
Tandon recounts how India's decision to impose a lockdown, forcing people who use drugs to go through withdrawals without treatment, can result in tragic deaths, highlighting the need for a policy change.
We must ask ourselves: How realistic can the AIDS Free Africa agenda be if we leave behind a whole key population? People who use drugs are being relegated to the margins.
This powerful account of women's life stories sheds light on the shared patterns of abuse that women who use drugs experience throughout their lives, and most violently, through their time in treatment and rehabilitation centres in Mexico.
By Corina GiacomelloCentro de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, México
In a context of scarce transparency and accountability on the impacts of drug control, civil society proposes better tools for monitoring and assessment.
Overdose deaths are skyrocketing, especially in North America and Northern Europe. This alarming situation calls for increased funding to harm reduction approaches that empower communities.
In a joint statement, released by the mother’s group and the Legalize Belarus civil movement on 30th May, activists identified a number of key points for meaningful drug policy reform.
Today, we stand together from Amsterdam to Nairobi to Buenos Aires to New York to Bangkok and raise our collective voices that will not be silenced to loudly clamour for an end to repression and punishment as instruments of drug control.
The 2019 Ministerial Segment laid bare some of the frictions at the heart of the international consensus on drug policy, also highlighting pending tasks.
The legal regulation of cannabis for medical and research purposes is a step in the right direction, but the continued criminalisation of people who use cannabis and the restrictive understanding of medical uses might hinder access and create new challenges.
Even though there is evidence that we are moving towards a less punitive approach to drug policy, there is still so much more to be done in terms of harm reduction interventions and the effectiveness of the current drug policies.
