The Irish Press Ombudsman made a historic decision on 12th June, deciding in favour of a coalition of national and international drug services against the Irish Independent for a column by Ian O’Doherty which described drug users as “vermin”, “feral, worthless scumbags” and proclaimed that “if every junkie in this country were to die tomorrow I would cheer”.
In this joint statement, GBCHealth and the Global Commission on Drug Policy call for a new approach to drug policy that prioritises public health and human rights, and facilitates the scaling up of effective HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.
More than 3000 people came together at the United Nations in New York for the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS in June to take stock of the progress and challenges of the last 30 years and shape the future AIDS response. In this Political Declaration, countries agreed to advance efforts towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV and halving HIV infection among people who inject drugs by 2015. The Political Declaration is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.
The National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi (NRC) and UNODC are collaborating to review the framework and objectives of an assessment study on the current drug policy situation in the United Arab Emirates, which will lead to a review of the country's anti-drug strategy.
Although broadening drug control cooperation beyond the traditional top-down bilateral focus is often viable and preferable, ironically, the current trilateral draft agreement overlooks existing successful multilateral collaboration and could provoke and deepen divisions.
In an unprecedented decision, the Bombay High Court struck down the mandatory death penalty for drug offences, becoming the first Court in the world to do so.
Over 200 leading international NGOs have backed the Beirut Declaration on HIV and Injecting Drug Use calling on world leaders to scale up harm reduction programmes that address the role of injecting drug use in the AIDS epidemic.
In this statement, the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions assesses how the possible introduction of the Weed Card will affect inbound tourism.
Sinaloa and Juarez cartels are fighting for the city and the access it provides to the multi-billion dollar US drug market only a few hundred metres away. On this episode of Fault Lines, Josh Rushing travels to Ciudad Juarez, and asks how human life there came to be worth so much less than the drugs being trafficked through.
The Philippines is well-known for exporting domestic workers across the world, but as low-income jobs disappear in the global recession, increasing numbers of desperate Filipinos are resorting to something much more dangerous – smuggling drugs as mules.
On 14th June 2011, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, met with the President and several key leaders in Kazakhstan to discuss the country's and region's ongoing efforts in curbing drug use, illicit trafficking, and organized and financial crime.
The global call for decriminalisation by a number of politicians has led to strong oppositions between the French government and a number of civil society organisations.