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.
In a geo-political context vastly different from the ‘mood of change’ that had characterised the 2016 UNGASS debate, it is critical that reform-minded NGOs keep the pressure on both governments and the UN – and continued advocacy at the UN level to challenge the international regime to retain the…
The ruling of the South African Constitutional Court regarding the unconstitutionality of full cannabis prohibition challenges the country's status quo, and raises the debate on which regulatory models should be followed.
Cracks in this well-trodden system have long been apparent in Vienna but finally reached a breaking point in an unlikely place – New York – as negotiations for the annual resolution “International cooperation to address and counter the world drug problem” (also known as the drugs “omnibus”…
The 2011-2012 HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs in Greece might have subsided, but the structural conditions that facilitated it are still very much in place.
Axel Klein and Maria-Goretti Ane-Loglo discuss why scheduling tramadol would compound, not solve, West Africa's difficulties in managing the informal market.
IDPC and project partners have presented a series of policy guides to advocate reforms in drug and sentencing policies in South East Asia aiming to reduce incarceration and protect the rights of the incarcerated.
Next March, we hope that governments will acknowledge the disastrous human rights impacts of the last decade (and beyond) and openly admit that there is no progress to speak of towards eliminating the global drug market.
The divergence between the Commission’s progressing stance on legal regulation and Trump’s Global Call to Action reminds us of the many obstacles facing drug policy reform. But it is also a promising reminder of the waning hegemony of the war on drugs rhetoric.
Far from an effort at achieving mutual understanding and genuine consensus on drug policy, the "Global Call to Action" is yet another instance of heavy-handed U.S. “with us or against us” diplomacy.
A side event at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs brought together experts to discuss how drug policy outcomes are measured, with the Sustainable Development Goals discussed as a potential mechanism of evaluation.
There is still a long way to go. But what is clear though is that the combined efforts from academia, policy circles, and the involvement of the grassroots in the development of solutions can pave the way for more systematic responses to the tough questions on illicit economies.
