The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is comprised of over 50 organizations and 6,000 individuals working to advance and realize drug policies grounded in compassion and guided by science, and shift the public narrative on substance use and people who use drugs.

La Coalición Canadiense de Políticas sobre Drogas está formada por más de 50 organizaciones y 6.000 personas que trabajan para promover y hacer realidad políticas de drogas basadas en la compasión y guiadas por la ciencia, y para cambiar el discurso público sobre el consumo de sustancias y las personas que las consumen.

La Coalition canadienne des politiques sur les drogues est composée de plus de 50 organisations et de 6 000 personnes qui agissent ensemble pour faire progresser et réaliser des politiques en matière de drogues fondées sur la compassion et guidées par la science, et pour modifier le discours public sur la consommation de substances et les personnes usagères des drogues.

Canadian Drug Policy Coalition

 proposing to amend the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) by expanding the existing listings of the fentanyl precursor 4-piperidone and its salts to include its derivatives and analogues under the CDSA.

This boils down to criminalizing the possession and distribution of such compounds—in effect, an expansion of police and border control powers to search and seize shipments. Health Canada’s apparent intent is clear: to reduce the access of illegal fentanyl producers to the ingredients they need to make fentanyl and its analogues.

Health Canada consulted law enforcement and pharmaceutical researchers and companies, along with “interested members of the public.” As far as we know, they did not invite people who use drugs, people who produce or distribute drugs, or anyone at the frontline of the drug toxicity crisis (aside from police) to determine what impacts the scheduling of additional fentanyl precursors might have.

 of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition was paying attention and prepared a statement for submission to Health Canada. In it, Boyce outlines the harms that could arise from this perpetuation of drug war mindset through increased fentanyl criminalization. This article adapts Nick’s submission—an important read for understanding the life support system of the drug war in Canada: the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA).

Under Health Canada’s proposal, the existing listing for 4-piperidone and its salts would be expanded to include its derivatives and analogues, including 1-boc-4-piperidone, 3-methyl-4-piperidone, and 1-benzyl-4-piperidone. Health Canada claims that these substances are being imported into Canada and/or detected in clandestine laboratories and being used to synthesize fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. (Drug Data Decoded has 

 the size and frequency of major drug busts at production labs in Canada, including a sizeable shipment from Vancouver that arrived on Australian shores.)

The current regulatory environment and persistent and growing scheduling of substances and precursors does not achieve the intended outcome of reducing the use of substances and has unintended health and societal risks, especially for people who use drugs. In Canada, in the last decade, we have seen an exponential rise in drug deaths and hospitalizations, primarily as a result of heroin being almost entirely replaced by numerous fentanyl analogues. But fentanyl may not have proliferated had we sensibly regulated, instead of prohibited, heroin.

Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service data

 (DAS) and Cannabis Laboratory (CL) operates laboratories across Canada that analyze suspected illicit substances seized by Canadian law enforcement agencies. DAS data demonstrates the unintended consequences of scheduling substances: new and different substances continually emerge such as novel synthetic opioids (different fentanyl analogues and nitazene compounds) and other depressant type drugs such as a range of illicit benzodiazepines.

From July to September 2023, a total of 28,666 samples (including Cannabis) were submitted for 

There was a total of 6,819 identifications of opioids where 75% were fentanyl or fentanyl analogues (Fentanyl; Para-fluorofentanyl; Bromofentanyl; 4-anilino-n-phenethylpiperidine; Acetyl Fentanyl; Methoxyacetyl Fentanyl; Para-chlorofentanyl). From all samples containing heroin, 20% also contained fentanyl.

There was a total of 2,798 identifications of benzodiazepines during that period, which represents a 36% increase over the same period last year.

There was a total of 242 identifications of nitazenes during that period, which represents a 44% increase over the same period last year.

Newly identified depressant class substances included: Ethyleneoxynitazene; N-boc fluroro Norfentanyl.

That fentanyl first appeared in the illegal drug market at least as early as 1989 is well documented by people who use drugs, who referred to fentanyl-containing opioid supply as China White. Academic studies even referred to it in the 

Previous efforts to schedule and prohibit fentanyl and fentanyl precursors have not stopped people using substances. Instead, they have expanded the number of fentanyl analogues and other novel opioid or depressant-type contaminants in the drug supply. This has increased the volatility, danger, and toxicity of the unregulated drug supply. Over the last several years there has been an exponential increase in fatal and non-fatal overdoses, hospitalizations, and the attendant need for emergency health responses such as naloxone distribution, supervised consumption spaces, safe supply initiatives. In addition, scheduling substances further complicates law enforcement efforts.

Toxic drug deaths are primarily from the unregulated supply

Health Canada’s Notice of Intent to control the derivatives and analogues of the fentanyl precursor 4-piperidone and its salts under the CDSA notes:

“Between January 2016 and March 2023, there were a total of 38,514 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogues continue to be major drivers of the opioid overdose crisis, with 81% of all accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths from January to March 2023 involving fentanyl.”

Of all accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths so far in 2023 (January-March), 81% involved fentanyl. This percentage has increased by 42% since 2016 when national surveillance began but appears to have stabilized in recent years.

Of all accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths so far in 2023 (January-March), 77% involved opioids that were only non-pharmaceutical. This percentage has increased by 17% since 2018 when national surveillance began but appears to have stabilized in recent years.

There was a total of 37,697 opioid-related and 16,231 stimulant-related poisoning hospitalizations from January 2016 to March 2023 in Canada (excluding Quebec)

A total of 1,309 opioid-related poisoning hospitalizations occurred so far in 2023 (January-March). This is an average of 15 hospitalizations per day.

Governments at all levels and their institutional representatives continue to hint at their discomfort with the status quo—moving beyond talking points will require focused and persistent public pressure.

The harms of drugs versus the harms of prohibition

It is important to note that fentanyl is not inherently dangerous – it is used widely in human medicine (Trade names Abstral®, Duragesic®, Onsolis®). However, in the unregulated market, dosage and purity are never assured - prohibition and unregulated drugs are killing people.

People are now unknowingly consuming drugs that contain multiple substances. Fentanyl analogues, novel opioids, and nitazine and benzodiazepine-type compounds widely contaminate the supply, increasing toxicity. Beyond the deaths, there are thousands of hospitalizations, a growing cohort of people surviving with brain damage after non-fatal overdoses, and traditional opioid therapies, such as methadone, are less effective due to increased drug tolerance.

unprecedented mortality, negative health outcomes and social impacts

, creating an untenable situation. Solutions to Canada’s toxic drug crisis require a shift away from these harms of prohibition.

Making certain drugs illegal does not stop people from using substances. Criminalization of substance use further 

 people who use drugs, making it more difficult to engage them in health care, 

 many of the factors that negatively impact health and wellbeing, and negatively impacts educational, employment, travel and other prospects of individuals convicted for drug charges. Criminalization also fosters social marginalization and encourages high-risk behaviours, such as injecting in unhygienic, unsupervised environments, poly-drug use, and binge use.

 for underground chemists to create new substances that may be even more dangerous. Scheduling each new substance, precursor, or class of substances increases costs related to enforcement strategies and social costs to people who use these drugs. Resources spent on enforcement mean less resources for the provision of health and social supports that would be more effective in reducing drug use.

Banning drugs and relying on enforcement based supply-side approaches to discourage their use has not stemmed drug use or stopped the drug supply. Despite Canada’s significant investment in drug control efforts, drugs or more dangerous substitutes are just as available as ever. There is 

 among international experts that drug prohibition has failed to deliver its intended outcomes and has been counterproductive.

Rather than reducing the supply of drugs, prohibition abdicates the regulation of drugs to criminal markets. This approach has several negative effects.

Drug policies that prohibit substances eliminate age restrictions on them by abandoning controls to an unregulated market. In addition, when we prohibit rather than regulate substances, it becomes impossible to control the purity and strength of drugs. Illegally produced and supplied drugs are of unknown strength and purity, increasing the risk of overdose, poisoning, and infections.

If the use of one drug is controlled by reducing supply, suppliers and users may move on to another drug with similar psychoactive effects, but less stringent controls. An example of this was emergence and subsequent banning of a novel synthetic cathinone (mephedrone) in the United Kingdom in 2010. People started using (unscheduled) mephedrone because drug enforcement efforts had negatively impacted the availability and quality of other stimulants such as cocaine and MDMA. However, people who used mephedrone before the ban either continued their use or switched back to previously prohibited and unregulated substances after the ban. Research showed that prohibiting mephedrone did not have the intended effect of reducing substance use; rather it 

 drug use to either new substances or older illegal substances of unknown purity or dose.

 also suggests that the ban on mephedrone displaced provision of this substance from internet and “head shop” suppliers to street-level sellers, thus involving more people in illegal activity, and the price increased.

 also demonstrated that law enforcement efforts to disrupt local drug markets by seizing opioids or stimulants are associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering of overdose events in the surrounding geographic area.

Increasing challenges and costs for law enforcement

Consumers face growing challenges from synthetic drugs owing to the unknown pharmacology and harms of the drugs, lack of pharmacological retail markets, as shown by the growing numbers of tranquilizers, including novel benzodiazepines, found in the drug supply.

The toxic drug crisis in North America has not been associated with a sizeable increase in the number of opioid users but driven by overdose deaths, mainly attributed to the use of fentanyls.

On November 18, 2023, the head of the RCMP unit responsible for fighting organized crime was 

 as saying: “Sadly, Canada is a producing country of fentanyl and synthetic opioids. Not only are we a producing country, we're an exporting country. One of the challenges is that a lot of these precursors are not illegal.”

While this may appear to be a challenge from a law enforcement perspective, the unintended consequences of never-ending scheduling and prohibition are a far greater challenge.

On November 26, 2023 the vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at Canadian Border Services Agency was 

 as saying: “CBSA is in a constant game of cat-and-mouse with criminal organizations that are trying to import dangerous narcotics as well as the ingredients for fentanyl—sometimes through ‘creative’ means…It's an ever-evolving game where we're constantly looking at new and different tactics to smuggle drugs into the country or out of the country."

A drug-free world is an unattainable and, for many, undesirable world. It is time to consider a new approach that eliminates the negative effects of drug prohibition, provides a variety of health and social supports and harm reduction services, and avoids criminalizing those who choose to use drugs.

Clearly all drugs, whether legal or illegal, can pose risks. The 

2019 Canadian Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CADS)

 asked about five harms people may have experienced in the past 12 months due to alcohol consumption. Types of harm include being unable to stop drinking once started, failing to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking, needing a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session, being unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking, or having a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking.

Of those who reported past-year alcohol use, 21% (4.8 million) experienced at least one alcohol-related harm in the past year due to alcohol use. These data demonstrate that alcohol, a regulated substance, can still be harmful. However, alcohol is subject to regulatory controls, including pricing, age restrictions and dose that help to contain the negative public health and public safety effects while avoiding the negative effects of complete prohibition. As a result, people do not die from a toxic alcohol supply.

Regulation, not prohibition, of all substances would ensure they are manufactured under safe and sanitary conditions and can be subject to penalties for sale in adulterated and/or unlabeled forms. A key benefit of regulation is that it allows appropriate controls to be put in place over price and availability (location, times of opening and age restrictions) as well as controls over advertising and promotion. It is precisely because unregulated drugs pose risks that they need to be appropriately regulated to ensure that dosing and conditions of manufacture protect the safety and health of Canadians. Allowing people reasonable access to substances of known quality and purity would:

Significantly reduce unintentional fatal and non-fatal overdose or poisoning.

Remove the control of drugs from the criminal market and its associated corruption and violence.

Reduce criminal market incentives to produce new or novel substances to skirt scheduling and enforcement.

Free-up resources wasted on ineffective and harmful prohibition and law enforcement that could be directed to myriad health and social programs.

Stopping the endless and harmful cycle of scheduling and prohibition and to follow recommendations and calls found in:

The August 2023 Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 

Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem

, specifically recommendations: (a) Adopt alternatives to criminalization, “zero tolerance” and elimination of drugs, by considering decriminalization of usage; and take control of illegal drug markets through responsible regulation, to eliminate profits from illegal trafficking, criminality and violence; (c) Consider developing a regulatory system for legal access to all controlled substances;

The Global Commission on Drug Policy 2021 report, 

The Global Commission argues that options for legal regulation should be explored for all psychoactive substances. Regulation means not only protecting the health and safety of the end-consumer, but also creating a supply chain with strict controls for potency, quality and access. Regulation ultimately requires the boldness to build a world that does not yet exist.

Consider different models of legal regulation such as those outlined by the UK’s 

Canada: Net-widening the 'war on drugs'

 Thursday, 30 November 2023 / 15:00 - 16:30 (GMT - London)

This recording is available in English and 

Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drugs Threats

 with the objective of mobilising the international community to “come together to collectively combat this shared challenge”. By October 2023, some 120 governments had signed up to be part of the Coalition.

In parallel, the USA will table a resolution at the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly that calls on UN Member States to prioritise global action to address the public health and security challenges posed by synthetic drugs.

Nonetheless, the question remains as to whether the Global Coalition will seek to promote innovative approaches to synthetic drugs, that are grounded in health and human rights, or whether it will be yet another vehicle to continue promoting interdiction and eradication.

This online event aims to inform and feed into this discussion, with inputs from health and human rights experts. Speakers will discuss a breadth of issues which include:

How prohibition itself has fuelled the increase in the diversity and use of synthetic substances (the so-called balloon effect) and the flaws this exposes in international drug control.

The medical significance of synthetic drugs like tramadol and ketamine in many parts of the world and how international scheduling would drastically reduce their availability.

The importance of harm reduction as the foremost pillar in the response to all drug use, including synthetic drugs, especially as it relates to preventing and responding to overdoses - as well as measures aimed at ending sanctions and reducing stigma against people who use drugs.

A discussion of the potential offered by the Global Coalition and its resolution to directly and progressively address these issues.

Keynote: Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Global Commission on Drug Policy

Daan van der Gouwe, Drug Markets Researcher, Trimbos Instituut, Netherlands

Theshia Naidoo, Managing Director of U.S. Foreign Policy, Drug Policy Alliance, USA

Andrzej Celinski, Contract Manager & Executive Administrator, Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs

Lisa Sánchez, Executive Director, Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia

Smriti Rana, Head of Strategic Programs and Partnerships, Pallium India 

Moderated by Ann Fordham, International Drug Policy Consortium.

Synthetic realities: Global drug policies beyond the 'new threat' narrative

As of 2022, the drug toxicity crisis killed approximately 20 people a day in Canada, with rates remaining high (Government of Canada, 2023). This crisis is the result of over a century of prohibition-based policies that have made the current drug supply highly unpredictable and deadly. Safe supply seeks to reduce the risks of drug use and overdose by ensuring people can access or purchase legally regulated drugs that are of known content and strength. The goals of safe supply include increased health, stability, autonomy, and quality of life (CAPUD, 2019).

Emerging evidence points to the success of existing prescribed safe supply programs in contributing to reduced emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and healthcare costs (Gomes et al., 2022) as well as addressing drug poisoning risks through decreased engagement with the unregulated street drug supply (McNeil et al., 2022). People receiving safe supply have self-reported associations between safe supply and experiences of positive health and social outcomes, improved mental health, increased connection to health and social supports, and safer drug use practices (Victoria SAFER Initiative, 2022). Further, reporting from both the BC Centre for Disease Control (2022) and BC Coroners Service (2023) indicates there is currently no evidence to suggest that prescribed safe supply initiatives are contributing to illicit drug toxicity deaths.

However, the limited scale and scope of safe supply availability in Canada means that the vast majority of people using drugs are currently unable to access it. As a community-based research, Imagine Safe Supply explored the priorities of people who use drugs and frontline workers around participation in safe supply. The findings provide insight about value-based and implementation focused priorities that centre drug user leadership in the development and expansion of community-specific safe supply models in Canada.

This research was undertaken through a partnership with Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, which stewards all data related to First Nations research participation in accordance with OCAP® Principles; First Nations data is not included in this set of findings.

Imagine safe supply - Summary of findings

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The place where Chris gets his fentanyl is bright and airy, all blond wood and exposed brick. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable about the potency of the pills he can crush, cook and inject.

Soft pop music played, and an attendant spritzed a bit of Covid-cautious spray on his seat before he settled into a booth on a recent afternoon with a couple of red-and-yellow pills, a tourniquet, a tiny candle and a lighter.

“The best thing about this is the guarantee: I can come in here four times a day and get it,” Chris said. He no longer spends all of his waking hours in a frantic scrabble of panhandling and “other stuff” to scrape up the cash to pay a dealer. He won’t get arrested — and he won’t overdose and die using a drug that is not what it is sold as.

Canada: Fentanyl from the government? A Vancouver experiment aims to stop overdoses

– A growing group of drug policy and human rights organizations across Canada — comprising people who use drugs, health professionals, legal experts, academics, and others — say the Government of Canada’s latest move to decriminalize drug possession should go further to protect everyone, in particular those most endangered by drug prohibition and the drug toxicity crisis. We support policy that moves the needle forward; however, it is disappointing that decriminalization under the model announced on May 31st will not protect all people who use drugs from the harms of criminalization.

We support progress, but we dream bigger. We want full decriminalization for all.

Yesterday, the Government of Canada, led by its newly created Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, joined with the Government of British Columbia to announce implementation of B.C.’s requested exemption to the 

(CDSA). B.C. is the first jurisdiction in Canada to effect this policy change. The policy provides legal protection to adults in B.C. who possess illicit drugs up to a cumulative total of 2.5 grams.

Yesterday’s announcement validates the efforts of people who use drugs and their allies across B.C. and Canada, who have for decades led the charge for drug decriminalization. But the announcement also signals a missed opportunity. A cumulative threshold quantity of 2.5 grams leaves many people who use drugs behind, namely those living in rural and remote communities who already bear the disproportionate brunt of drug prohibition and the drug toxicity crisis. People purchase larger quantities of drugs for myriad reasons: geographic restrictions, personal mobility reasons, and to limit interactions with the illicit drug market. Concerns over too-low threshold quantities were expressed repeatedly to B.C. and Health Canada by B.C.’s own Core Planning Table for Decriminalization and the Board of the Vancouver Network of Drug Users (VANDU) — to no avail.

This decision comes just as a more progressive drug policy bill, Bill C-216, is up for vote in Parliament today, on June 1. It is clear that the timing of the announcement is meant to hamper the progression of that bill through to committee stage, whereupon it could be further strengthened. Nonetheless, we call on Members of Parliament to listen to the voices of experts in this field and vote Bill C-216 through to committee stage today.

The fact that Canada is not considering national action towards decriminalization is shameful at this juncture, particularly as three jurisdictions have already applied for exemptions to date. The piecemeal approach the Government of Canada is now clearly taking does not adequately address the urgency of the drug poisoning crisis in this country.

We will continue to push for decriminalization for everyone and to turn the page on an outdated drug war that continues to kill as many as 20 people each day in Canada. Criminalization has failed, and there is no need to continue along this misguided path. Truly, a systems change is required in the context of a public health emergency caused by the system itself. We must decriminalize drugs and the people who use them, and provide access to a legal, regulated supply. Canada cannot wait.

“We need decriminalization for all": Drug policy & human rights organizations say model in British Columbia leaves many behind

Punitive drug laws and policies purported to deter drug use have failed — and worse, they have donecatastrophic harm. They have fueled deadly stigma; epidemics of preventable illness and death; poverty;homelessness; and widespread, systematic, and egregious violations of human rights. They are rooted in,and have reinforced, sexism, racism, and colonialism. They have destroyed lives, torn families apart, andundermined communities’ well-being and safety. They have wasted inordinate sums of public money tocause terrible damage.

Recognizing the many lives that have been lost and ruined to the state-sanctioned “war on drugs,” we mustact to end the harm. We must stop stigmatizing drug use and pointlessly punishing people who use drugs.We must expand harm reduction programs; ensure access to non-coercive, evidence-informed treatmentand supports; scale up safe supply measures; and ensure that policies, programs, and services protect andpromote health and socio-economic wellbeing. At the heart of these reforms must be efforts focused onreducing poverty; ensuring access to housing; and combatting violence, sexism, racism, discrimination, andimplementing the Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and the Calls to Justicein the report of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, and other commitments.

Decriminalizing personal drug possession and necessity trafficking are fundamental, necessary stepstowards a more rational and just drug policy, and away from our current anti-drug policies. It is a changethat is long overdue.

We call on the Government of Canada to adopt an anti-racist, anti-colonial, human rights–based approach to drug policy that does not rely on criminal, administrative, and medical interventions that maintain the goal of dissuading drug use, and under which people who use drugs continue to be oppressed, coerced, and silenced. Among other measures, our proposed drug policy includes:

1. Fully decriminalizing all drug possession for personal use, as well as the sharing or selling of drugs for subsistence, to support personal drug use costs, or to provide a safe supply. This requires the removal of criminal sanctions and all other penalties (administrative or otherwise) as follows:

A full repeal of section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) and section 8 of the Cannabis Act;

Amendments to section 5 of the CDSA, which criminalizes trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking, to permit the sharing and selling of drugs for subsistence, to support personal drug use costs, and to provide a safe supply (i.e. “necessity trafficking”);

Removal of all sanctions and interventions associated with simple drug possession, or with necessity trafficking, including:
▷ administrative penalties, including but not limited to fines, “health assessments,” or dissuasion commissions;
▷ confiscation of substances, paraphernalia, or medical supplies;
▷ geographic, drug use, or personal contact restrictions or curfews;
▷ drug treatment courts as a coercive alternative to criminal sanctions; and
▷ other coerced or involuntary treatment or other health interventions.

Automatic expungement of previous convictions for simple drug possession (including for cannabis) and an applications-based expungement process for necessity trafficking, as well as expungement of previous convictions for breaches of police undertakings, bail, probation, or parole conditions associated with charges for these acts;

Clear rules and strict limitations relating to when police can stop, search, and investigate a person for drug possession; and

Removal of police and other law enforcement as “gatekeepers” or “liaisons” between people who use drugs and health and social services, to be replaced by organizations led by people who use(d) drugs or skilled and trained frontline workers.

2. Redistributing resources from the enforcement of these harmful drug laws to non-coercive, voluntary policies, programs, and services that protect and promote people’s health and human rights, including health, education, housing, and social services that support people who use drugs, have been released from prison or are incarcerated due to conviction for drug-related offences, and promote the safety and well-being of communities.

Decriminalization done right: A rights-based path for drug policy

As organizations and individuals committed to the liberation of people who use drugs, and progressive, rights-based drug policy reforms including decriminalization, we, the undersigned, call on the City of Vancouver to address three major concerns regarding its current application to the federal Health Minister to decriminalize simple drug possession locally. We also call on Health Canada and the federal Health Minister, Patty Hajdu, to refrain from imposing unnecessary and unjustified restrictions on any exemption issued to enable decriminalization in Vancouver or other municipalities or provinces that may follow suit, and we call on the Vancouver Police Department to stand down, vacate the process of decriminalization, and sign off on community-established thresholds.

We support the City of Vancouver’s initiative as the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally pursue decriminalization of simple drug possession. We are also keenly aware that the process leading to, and the substantive outcome of, this policy change are likely to become a precedent for jurisdictions considering similar initiatives, such as British Columbia. It is essential, therefore, that the “Vancouver Model” of decriminalization proceeds correctly. This means taking the utmost care to consider the lived and living realities of people who use drugs and ensuring the approach adopted does not lead to more harm than good.

Decriminalization done right: A human rights and public health vision for drug policy reform in Canada

Both the development sector and the drug policy reform movement advocate for community participation in policy change, yet this is often overstated and under-valued. In this webinar we explore how to ensure impacted communities participate in drug policy reform and that legal regulation protects their livelihoods, espouses social justice and promotes equity

- Wednesday, 16 December 2020 - 15:30 PM

 -Programme Manager: Drug Use & Harm Reduction Alliance India

 - Independent Cannabis Advocate, Thailand

 - Activist, Alliance for Choice, N. Ireland

- Activist-researcher Kalpavriksh & Global Tapestry of Alternatives, India

 - Activist for Womens Rights in Cannabis, Morocco

, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

This webinar will be in English, we are exploring options for live Spanish translation.

This webinar is part of a wider series exploring why the socially just legal regulation of drugs is vital for sustainable development. We will explore how drug policies intersect with some of the most pressing issues facing the development sector, and identify how to make sure legally regulated drug markets work for people along the supply chain.

Find more information on the webinar series here

 Brought to you by a coalition of drug policy reform experts and development organizations; International Drug Policy Consortium, Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Transnational Institute, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Instituto RIA, and Interdisciplinary Centre for Cannabis Research (ICCR) facilitated by Health Poverty Action.

Community participation and the legal regulation of drugs

Part Six of the webinar series - 'A World with Drugs: Legal Regulation through a Development Lens'.

The concept of ‘alternative development’ has dominated the intersection of drug control and development historically – but has been subject to growing critique. We explore how can it evolve into meaningful promotion of sustainable livelihoods for impacted communities, including possibilities for transitioning into legally regulated drug crop products.

An exciting line-up of speakers will be announced shortly.

This webinar will be in English, we are exploring options for live Spanish translation.

18 November, 16:30-18:00 BST.
London – 15:30-17:00, Bogota – 11:30-12:00, New York, 10:30-12:00, Johannesburg – 17:30-19:00, Delhi – 21:00-22:30.

This webinar is part of a wider series exploring why the socially just legal regulation of drugs is vital for sustainable development. We will explore how drug policies intersect with some of the most pressing issues facing the development sector, and identify how to make sure legally regulated drug markets work for people along the supply chain.

Find more information on the webinar series here - https://www.healthpovertyaction.org/news-events/legal-regulation-of-drugs-a-development-lens/

Brought to you by a coalition of drug policy reform experts and development organizations; International Drug Policy Consortium, Transform Drug Policy Foundation, Transnational Institute, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Instituto RIA, and Interdisciplinary Centre for Cannabis Research (ICCR) facilitated by Health Poverty Action.

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