"The government is committed to tighten control over border crossings and increase border control to decrease drug smuggling into the country," the Iranian interior minister told reporters in Tehran on Thursday.

He said that decreasing counter-security incidents along borders, specially through blocking boundaries in Southeastern and Northwestern Iran are among the interior ministry's plans to block supply of narcotics in the current year.

Iran aims to completely seal off its Eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan by 2015 to prevent drug smuggling and infiltration of armed groups.

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Iran planning to intensify war on drug traffickers says interior minister

The growing market for new psychoactive substances (so called legal highs) is a headache for politicians all over the world. Large quantities of formerly unkown drugs are shipped from Chinese and Indian factories to urban centres, where smart online distributors market them among young people as cheap and legal substitutes for currently illegal drugs. New Zealand, a country far from drug trafficking routes, had to face this challenge much earlier than other developed nations. Its government at first responded to this challenge in the good old prohibitionist way: banning as many new substances as possible, as fast as possible. There was only one problem with this approach - namely, that it didn't work. As soon as a substance was banned, a new substitute replaced it in the market, with a slightly different molecular structure and similar psychoactive properties. In 2013, policy makers introduced a new law which aimed to create a legal, regulated market for certain new drugs – so long as the distributor could provide clinical evidence that they pose a low risk to public health.

When the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) visited New Zealand to make a film about this pioneering policy, some retail outlets had already been licensed by the government to sell some approved substances, even before the risk assessment regulation comes into effect. A few days after HCLU finished editing their movie, Minister Peter Dunne announced that the government will remove currently-approved legal highs from sale until they can be proven to be low-risk. The media presented it as the government performing a U-turn on its drug policy. Actually, the policy framework has not yet been abandoned, the risk assessment regime is still in place, and distributors still have the opportunity to prove their products are low-risk. What is behind the unexpected decision of the government is not scientific evidence – but the tabloid media, with its potential to frighten voters at the upcoming elections. Now it's up to the next government to determine the fate of the Psychoactive Substances Act.

A foot in the door: A new approach to drugs in New Zealand

Canada has followed in the footsteps of its US neighbour by installing its first vending machine for medical marijuana in the city of Vancouver.

The machine has been installed in a local dispensary known as the BC Pain Society who boast that it features “Purple Kush, Bubba Kush, sativa and indica strains of medical marijuana”.

A video uploaded on YouTube by the dispensary shows that unlike a similar machine installed in Coloarado last month, there’s no built-in system to identify the buyer, with users simply feeding in the necessary money and selecting their product of choice.

Chuck Varabioff of the BC Pain Society told Canada’s Global News that verification of the buyers’ identity would instead be carried out by staff and that feedback from the dispensary’s clientele had so far been “incredible”.

Canada welcomes first cannabis vending machine in Vancouver

UNODC, together with UNAIDS, UNICEF and UNDP, has established a project to reduce the risk and impact of HIV/AIDS in the north east region of India, an ethnically diverse area bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh. Building on years of experience on similar efforts, this project aims to help local communities prevent the spread of HIV through unsafe injecting drug use, especially among vulnerable populations -of which women represent a large part.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Preventing HIV/AIDS among women who use drugs in north eastern India

The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Tuesday legalizing medical marijuana that is more ambitious than Gov. Mark Dayton and law enforcement officials have said they would support.

The legislation, approved by senators on a bipartisan 48-18 vote, would allow patients to use marijuana in the form of pills, oil and vapor to ease their symptoms but would prohibit them from smoking the drug. Minnesota would be the only state with legalized medical marijuana to ban patients from smoking it to ease their symptoms.

Minnesota Senate passes medical marijuana bill & could become only state that bans smoking

The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded on May 1, 2014 its 55th Regular Session with a review of current drug policies in the Hemisphere, in compliance with the mandate that the hemispheric institution received from the leaders of the region at the Summit of the Americas in 2012.

The OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, participated in the final session of the three day meeting of CICAD and thanked the commissioners of the 34 member countries for their active participation in the meetings. Secretary General Insulza highlighted the contributions that the hemispheric institution has made to the global drug problem, and called both the Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas (Analytical Report and Scenarios Report), and the Declaration of Antigua Guatemala adopted by all Member States of the OAS at the 2013 General Assembly in in Guatemala, that calls for a Special General Assembly focused on the discussion of the issue, "substantial contributions to the discussions on this topic that are being developed around the world."

Secretary General Insulza said that the conclusions of the Special General Assembly that the OAS will hold on the world drug problem in September in Guatemala "will surely represent a major contribution to the debate on drug policy that the United Nations will undertake in 2016."

The Executive Secretary of CICAD, Paul Simons, introduced the Work Plan for 2014, and listed the five program areas in which the work of the Commission will be based: Institutional Strengthening; Demand Reduction; Supply Reduction; Control Measures; and International Cooperation. He reiterated that "all activities and programs will support the Hemispheric Drug Strategy and its Plan of Action."

CICAD reviews current drug policies in the Hemisphere at 55th Regular Session

Four in every ten women who die a drug-related death have previously been reported as victims of domestic abuse, new figures have revealed.

A leading expert described the link as disturbing.

David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) said addicts often endured abuse at home, but could miss out on proper support due to the stigma surrounding their drug use. He was speaking after official figures revealed that four out of every ten women who suffered a drug related death in 2012 also had a history of domestic abuse.

Mr Liddell said: "This figure should be disturbing to all of us. One of the challenges for a woman with a drug problem and on the receiving end of domestic abuse is where to go for help when they are doubly stigmatised."

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'Disturbing' link between domestic violence and drug deaths in Scotland

The Uruguayan government has unveiled long-awaited regulations for its recreational marijuana market — a move that steers the tiny nation of 3.3 million people away from the prohibitionist war on drugs, with its disastrous consequences in Latin America, and toward a drug policy based on improving public health and security. Although Uruguay’s Congress approved the measure in December — becoming the first country in the world to legalize recreational pot use — it was just this week that the government of President José Mujica announced all the details.

The regulations allow three forms of access to marijuana. Uruguayans can purchase up to 40 grams per month – with a limit of 10 grams per week – from registered pharmacies. They can also choose to cultivate up to 6 homegrown plants, with a cap on annual production at 480 grams. Finally, as members of cannabis clubs, Uruguayans will be able to cultivate up to 99 plants per group, with a production cap of 480 grams per member. But smokers must choose one form of acquiring pot, and will be denied access to the drug by the other two means. The law officially takes effect on May 6, the government announced Friday.

Uruguay unveils marijuana regulation details

While the West carries on its steady course towards legalisation, piggybacking on the ever-increasing awareness of marijuana's medicinal properties, Japan's cannabis laws remain resolutely harsh. However, a recently discovered loophole allows for the non-psychoactive compound, CBD, to be imported and consumed within Japan. CBD, which has numerous health benefits, is extracted from the stalk of the plant, whereas Japanese law only forbids use of the plant's leaves and flowers.

Shirasaka, head member of Taima Houdou Centre, a legalisation group and advocate for medicinal cannabis – and the man who discovered the CBD loophole – is currently awaiting trial for marijuana possession but plans to fight his case on the basis of cannabis's remarkable therapeutic properties. VICE went to visit Shirasaka as he prepares for his trial.

VICE also visits terminally ill cancer patient POP – a woman who claims that CBD has helped her live years beyond her prognosis – and witness a family with a severely epileptic child try CBD for the first time, with incredible results.

Read the full article and watch the video here.

The battle for medical marijuana in Japan 

The authorities have moved to reclassify a list of so-called “legal highs” — which mimic the effects of drugs such as cocaine and Ecstasy — as Class A controlled drugs, making the abuse of such substances an offence punishable by imprisonment and caning.

Known as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), they are mainly produced by introducing slight modifications to the chemical structures of controlled drugs. They were listed in the Fifth Schedule of the Misuse of Drugs Act enacted last year, which allows the authorities to seize them, but the trafficking, manufacture, import, export, possession or consumption of them did not constitute an offence.

With the reclassification, anyone found guilty of trafficking any NPS will face at least five years in jail and five strokes of the cane. A person found abusing any NPS can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $20,000, or both.

New psychoactive drugs become illegal in Singapore

Last week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s newest HIV mobile testing unit (MTU) hit the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia to bring free and accessible testing to residents of the city and the surrounding Leningrad Oblast (county).

The MTU, adorned in the colors of the Russian flag and a slogan calling on people to get tested, is the first of its kind in the country, and is a part of the new global 20x20 campaign. The campaign aims to get 20 million HIV positive people around the world on antiretroviral treatment by 2020, and scaling up testing is an integral part of achieving that goal.

Services like this MTU are particularly needed in Russia. UNAIDS estimates that two-thirds of the region’s people living with HIV reside here, and together with Ukraine these two countries account for 90% of newly registered cases of HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Testing hits the road in Russia, in style

Young Roma people in Serbia are particularly severely affected by the increase in use of traditional psychoactive substances, such as cannabis, inhalants (glue and solvents), heroin and alcohol. EDPI’s local partner, the NGO 'Re Generation', argues that these young people - a high proportion of whom live and work on the streets - are in need of special care.

A Roma girl, legally invisible, who may be a drug user/injecting drug user, a sex worker, a mother, HCV- and/or HIV-positive, isn't just on the margins of society - she's completely excluded from it. She bears the burden of stigma and discrimination, not only from the general population, but even from the Roma community. The culturally-embedded power imbalance exposes Roma girls to an increased risk of stigma, violence, and abuse - and in turn, these increase the likelihood that she will engage in behaviours which increase her vulnerability to HIV and other sexually-acquired conditions.

There is an essential need for gender-sensitive programs targeting the general population of young women, as well as Roma girls. The core activity of those programs should be outreach work with mobile teams. Experience of outreach work in Roma settlements confirms that education brings results - education about risk and risk-prevention filters through, across barriers of gender or age.