One in three music festival attendees says fear of getting in trouble with police would deter them from seeking help in a drug-related emergency, as advocacy groups call for harm-reduction policies, such as pill testing, to be revisited with the return of large events.

New research from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, published in 

 on Tuesday, found three-quarters of young people who attended big music festivals in Sydney reported at least one reason they would avoid seeking help for an overdose or medical issue caused by illicit drugs.

For 35 per cent of respondents, and 41 per cent of drug users, fear of police becoming involved was a deterrent. Other barriers included not knowing where to find help (20 per cent of respondents) and concern about family or friends finding out (15 per cent).

Dr Jonathan Brett, a drug and alcohol specialist who co-authored the study, said the results indicated there needed to be better dialogue between police and the public.

“We need to rethink the black-and-white policy of ‘say no to drugs’,” he said.

Australia: Third of festivalgoers say fear of police deters them seeking help with drug emergencies

By Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

UN human rights experts today, the 12th of May 2022, called on the Government of Singapore to immediately impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and said its continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes ran contrary to international law.

The experts condemned the execution in Singapore of a Singaporean and a Malaysian national, Abdul Kahar bin Othman and Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, in March and April 2022 respectively, for drug-related offences. They urged the Government to halt any plan to execute another Malaysian man, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, convicted for a similar offence.

Mr. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was executed despite claims that he had an intellectual disability, as well as a deteriorating mental health condition, and was a victim of human trafficking. “Executions of persons with intellectual disabilities and for drug-related offences are a violation of the right to life and the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and amount to unlawful killings,” said the experts.

Singapore: UN human rights experts urge immediate death penalty moratorium

The number of executions globally rose 20 percent in 2021, while the number of death sentences handed down increased by 40 percent, rights group Amnesty International has said.

“The increase in executions was primarily driven by rises in the yearly figure for Iran (from at least 246 in 2020 to at least 314 in 2021, a 28% increase), which was the highest figure on record since 2017,” the report said. “The spike in Iran appeared particularly for executions of people convicted of drug-related offences (132), which represented 42% of the total and constituted a more than five-fold rise from 2020.”

The figures do not include China, where thousands are thought to be executed or sentenced to death each year in a system shrouded in secrecy. Amnesty said secrecy in North Korea and Vietnam, as well as the difficulty in accessing information on the use of the death penalty “continued to impair a full assessment of global trends”.

Malaysia also continued with a moratorium on executions and the government said it would prepare legislative changes on the use of the death penalty by the third quarter of this year. Most people on death row in Malaysia have been convicted of drugs crimes.

Executions surge 20 percent in 2021 led by China, Iran: Amnesty

The UK’s first Home Office licensed regular drug checking service is set to launch in Bristol this month, delivered by leading non-profit harm reduction organisation The Loop. In partnership with Bristol City Council, The Loop will be bringing its pioneering service, which combines personalised health advice with drug testing, to central Bristol.


To be funded by Bristol City Council, operated by The Loop’s team of professional chemists and healthcare workers, and run in a multi-agency partnership with Bristol Drugs Project (BDP) and The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC), the trailblazing evidence-based health service aims to reduce high risk drug-taking and build a fuller picture of the illicit drug market in the local area.


Illicit substances can be tested, with testing proven to reduce drug-related harm. Completely confidential and free to access, it is set to open its doors for the first time on 28th May 2022 and will run once a month, with additional opening hours around significant local events.


Professor Fiona Measham (Director of The Loop and Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool):

“As the first and only dedicated drug checking service provider in the UK, The Loop has been working for nearly a decade to establish regular drug checking services direct to the public and we are extremely grateful to the Home Office for issuing the licence to be able to offer this vital service. The Loop has a proven track record of designing and delivering evidence-based innovative interventions to engage with people otherwise not in touch with health services and to support them in making safer choices. Furthermore, the intelligence on local drug markets gained from drug checking is shared with stakeholders to inform emergency services, public health surveillance networks, and wider drug using communities. We would also like to thank our local partners for their support in introducing this groundbreaking multi-agency initiative.”


The new drug testing service aligns with the aspirations set out in the Bristol Drug and Alcohol strategy. Bristol City Councillor Ellie King, Cabinet Lead for Public Health, Communities, and Bristol One City said:

“We welcome The Loop’s successful application for a Home Office licence for a new Drug Testing Service for Bristol which is an innovative approach to saving lives and reducing harm to our communities. As the first city in the UK to have a regular drug checking service in the heart of the city we will be able to provide communities with access to factual, scientific, evidence-based information about drugs they may consume and that are in circulation throughout the wider city.

This, alongside the one-on-one trained healthcare consultation, will empower people to make safer, informed decisions and access drug treatment and further support. Bristol is leading the way in this public health approach to keeping people safe around drugs shows that, as a city, we put our people’s wellbeing at the forefront of decision making.”


Drug checking services have operated successfully across Europe for four decades and have been piloted in UK cities and events by The Loop since 2016. Drug checking provides a vital opportunity for people to access accurate, timely, and relevant information to make more informed decisions about drugs. Service users surrender substances of concern for laboratory analysis by chemists and the results are shared with them as part of a personalised health consultation with a health professional.




How will it work?
Service users take substances of concern to BDP, place them into an amnesty box on the ground floor, then about an hour later go to PRSC where they receive individually tailored, non-judgemental healthcare consultations and test results from health professionals. In that intervening hour, a pop-up lab in BDP will analyse the substance using a number of chemical tests to identify the contents and strength of the substance of concern. The laboratory has a Home Office licence to handle controlled drugs.


Location: The sample drop-off and Loop pop-up laboratory are located at Bristol Drug Project. The healthcare consultations will take place at PRSC.

When: Once per month for a year, on payday weekend, the last weekend of the month, plus additionally ahead of Pride, LSTD, and the festive season.

Who: The Loop is providing the drug checking service funded by Bristol City Council, using Bristol Drugs Project and PRSC premises.

HO licence: This is the first Home Office licensed regular drug checking service in the UK (the only previous HO licensed drug checking service was a small 4-day pilot in Weston Super Mare, of which The Loop was a partner).

Set up for service users: Service users take substances of concern to BDP, surrender them into an amnesty box on the ground floor, then an hour later go to PRSC where they receive healthcare consultations and test results from health professionals. In that intervening hour, a pop-up lab in BDP will analyse the substance using a number of chemical tests to identify the contents and strength of the substance of concern for harm reduction purposes and to provide drug market monitoring information to emergency and support services across the city.

The UK's first regular drug checking service set to launch in Bristol this month

By Tassanee Vejpongsa and Grant Peck / AP News

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand made it legal to cultivate and possess marijuana as of Thursday, like a dream come true for an aging generation of pot smokers who recall the kick the legendary Thai Stick variety delivered.

The stated intention of the country’s public health minister to distribute 1 million marijuana seedlings, beginning Friday, has added to the impression that Thailand is turning into a weed wonderland.

Some Thai advocates celebrated Thursday morning by buying marijuana at a cafe that had previously been limited to selling products made from the parts of the plant that do not get people high. The dozen or so people who turned up at the Highland Cafe were able to choose from a variety of buds with names such as Sugarcane, Bubblegum, Purple Afghani, and UFO.

“I can say it out loud, that I am a cannabis smoker. I don’t need to hide like in the past when it was branded as a illegal drug,” said 24-year-old Rittipong Bachkul, the day’s first customer.

So far, it appears there would be no effort to police what people can grow and smoke at home, aside from registering to do so, and declaring it is for medical purposes.

“As far as the government is concerned, it’s their job to promote medical use only. But it is pretty clear that we have come very far and finally are legalizing its use. The government understands that it’s more pros than cons,” Rattapon Sanrak, the cafe’s co-owner and a longtime legalization activist, told The Associated Press.

Thailand makes marijuana legal, but smoking discouraged

The Australian government recently donated $40 million to assist with alleviating the food security and economic crises unfolding in Afghanistan, while reiterating its condemnation of the Taliban’s repression and exclusion of women and girls from education and work. Many nations have withheld donations because of these violations of human rights—as well as the revenge executions and disappearances of ‘traitors’ who worked with US-led forces and the US-backed Afghan government or criticised Taliban policies—to avoid legitimising the Taliban’s rule.

The commitment to oppressing women is, however, evidently still more important to the Taliban leadership than basic food security, despite their having a front-row seat to watch the humanitarian crisis play out and affect all Afghan society, not just women.

Surely the international community knows this calculus by now. The most significant difference between the Taliban of the 2020s and 1990s seems to be that instead of banning the internet as part of their strategy to control the population, they are savvy about the potential for a curated social-media presence to affect international perceptions and promote disinformation domestically for political and security purposes.

Australia did the right thing in making its decision based on the immediate food security needs of Afghans. This is a hugely complex situation, and the Afghan people stand to suffer even more if the international community applies too much pressure on particular issues at particular times. Intersecting security issues also make it impossible for the international community to get it right—if that’s defined as finding an option that causes no harm.

Afghanistan’s opium problem requires a humanitarian solution

Peter Vanderkloot’s groundbreaking article—Methadone: Medicine, Harm Reduction or Social Control—hit me hard. As a social worker, I helped people who used heroin get into methadone programs. His insightful analysis and refreshingly angry takedown of the United States methadone clinic system explained both negative interactions I’d had with clinic staff and traumatic incidents that clients shared with me. I go back and review the article often.

Vanderkloot describes in precise detail how clinic regulations disrupt and damage patients’ lives. He shows how a medication that embodies harm 

. He knows what he’s talking about. For years, he’s stood in line waiting to be called to the plexiglass window by a nurse who pushes a plastic cup filled with red liquid through a chuckhole.

Then he drops this time bomb: “The methadone clinic system is a weapon of the drug warriors, and as long as it exists it will be used to control, degrade and injure.” Vanderkloot argues for the destruction of the clinic system and for methadone prescription parity.

But a current federal bill fails to recognize and seize this chance.

Twenty-one years and a pandemic later, abolishing the clinic system and establishing the right of patients to do something as ordinary as pick up a methadone prescription at CVS or Walgreens is a real possibility.

But a current federal bill fails to recognize and seize this chance. On May 18, it was announced that methadone provisions of the Opioid Treatment Access Act of 2022 (HR6279), proposed by Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), were being folded into another bill—the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act (HR7666), sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ). The provisions are woefully inadequate in eliminating methadone restrictions to address the overdose crisis.

United States: The methadone clinic system needs abolition, not a tepid reform bill

The author of a landmark report into drug addiction in New South Wales believes the government’s “tough on crime” approach to a spate of shootings is destined to fail unless it dramatically overhauls funding for rehabilitation and treatment.

More than two years since Prof Dan Howard handed over the findings of his special commission into crystal methamphetamine, also known as “ice”, the state government is still yet to respond to its recommendations.

Commissioned by former premier Gladys Berejiklian after a spate of drug-related deaths, the four-volume report followed 14 months of investigations and called for a sweeping overhaul of drug laws in the state.

It slammed the criminalisation of drug users as a “profound flaw” in the NSW justice system and recommended the complete decriminalisation of drug possession in the state.

Australia: ‘Complete lack of political courage’ - As NSW drugs war rages, expert renews decriminalisation push

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Bodies from a Rio de Janeiro police raid that left more than 20 alleged drug traffickers dead show signs of torture and summary execution, a senior lawyer said on Thursday, the latest incident of suspected police brutality to shock the South American nation.

Police say they encountered heavy gunfire when they carried out a raid in the slum of Vila Cruzeiro on Tuesday, an operation aimed at tracking down gang leaders who were allegedly hiding out there.

Evidence from the scene has raised concerns that some of the dead were tortured and killed in cold blood, according to Rodrigo Mondego, the head of the human rights commission at Rio's Bar Association.

"We saw one body with a white powder that looked like cocaine covering its face," he told AFP. "Whoever killed this person smeared it all over his face and may have forced him to eat it. It's an act of torture."

Mondego said there were suspicions of "a large number of summary executions."

"Witnesses have told us men who had surrendered to the police were then shot in the woods" above the hillside slum, he added.

Shock over Brazil police 'torture, executions' in drug raid

Supervised centres where marginalised people can legally take drugs should be seen as “key instruments” in reducing the harm caused by substances, the head of the EU drug agency has said.

Alexis Goosdeel, director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, said this was from seeing the work of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) across the EU, with some 100 centres now in operation.

His comments, made at an Emcdda-webinar, comes amid unconfirmed reports that An Bord Pleanála may decide soon on a court-ordered re-examination of proposals to set up Ireland’s first supervised injection centre in Dublin.

Permission given by the planning authority to the pilot centre, to be operated by Merchants Quay Ireland, was rejected by the High Court last July.

The ruling came after St Audeon’s primary school, which lies adjacent to MQI buildings, lodged a judicial review of the decision.

The court ruled the planning body had failed to take into account the concerns of the school in its decision to grant permission.

Speaking at the webinar, Mr Goosdeel said experiences from DCRs, including staff from three centres that spoke at the webinar, highlighted the need for “strong community work”.

Supervised drug-use centres key to reducing harm says EU expert

As the Duterte administration comes to an end, the change of leadership presents a new opportunity to finally, if belatedly, end the drug war which, by the President’s own admission, has been a failure.

Of course, by “failure,” he likely means the inability to “eliminate” (read: kill or jail) all the people he perceives to be “subhumans” and “zombies,” alongside the inability to stop people from using drugs altogether. Indeed, to the very end, he has insisted on his narrative that drugs are destroying the country and that he took the correct approach—only that the problem was too big. “Now that I won’t be president anymore, nobody can dictate what I do,” he said in Davao days before the election, adding: “I’ll search for drug peddlers, shoot them, and kill them.”

I would define failure differently: the inability to prevent harm to individuals (whether from drugs or from drug war-related violence), and to bring peace, security, and economic development to communities—on top of the inability to suppress the drug trade and the criminal syndicates associated with it. I would add that, for all the good intentions of some of our government officials and law enforcers, the fundamental flaw of the so-called drug war is that it was never meant to help people; it had other goals: to use drugs as a populist trope, to go after political enemies by using drugs as accusation, and to instill fear among communities.

Philippines: High time to end the drug war

By the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)

Africa and the Global Illicit Economy brings you stories and investigations based on the extensive research networks at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. We'll be looking at corruption, illicit financial flows, gangs, the role of foreign corporations, the political economy of crime, and the enabling environment that has made Africa vulnerable to the growth of organized crime. Drawing on the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime's civil society observatories for North, South, East and West Africa to get a feel for how organized crime is impacting some of the world and the continent’s emergency trends and contemporary events.

The Drugs and Development Hub is an initiative that brings together researchers, academics, policymakers and people affected by drug economies to discuss new approaches to drug policy. The ultimate goal is to shift mindsets towards more socially conscious and public-health oriented approach. This is the second episode covering the DDH. In this podcast Lindy sits down with a range of regional experts to discuss the issues. Presenter:

Deborah Alimi, Independent Researcher on Drug Policy at Sorbonne University;

Chinwike Okerere, the Founder and CEO of the African Law Foundation in Nigeria

Maria-Goretti Ane, International Drug Policy Consortium in Accra, Ghana.

Monique Marks, the Head of the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology, South Africa.