This paper discusses four areas of contradiction of the UN drug control system and the core values of the UN: sovereignty and jurisdiction; human rights; the promotion of solutions to international economic, social, health and related problems; and the maintenance of international peace and security.
Human Rights Watch have released this new report which documents how the Chinese authorities commit human rights abuses in the name of drug treatment. Many suspected drug users are confined under horrific conditions, subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and forced to engage in unpaid laborin compulsory drug detention centres.
Drug Policy and the Public Good presents, in a comprehensive, practical, and readily accessible form, the accumulated scientific knowledge on illicit drugs that has direct relevance to the development of drug policy on local, national, and international levels. This editorial presents an overview of the findings collected in this paper.
The authors sought to investigate non-fatal overdose experiences and responses to overdose among a community-recruited sample of injection drug users (IDU) in Bangkok, Thailand.
Unless alternative livelihoods are already firmly in place, eradication of coca and opium poppy crops is counter-productive, according to a new WOLA study that identifies ten lessons learned for promoting alternative livelihoods, based on decades of evidence in countries from Thailand and Burma to Afghanistan and the Andes.
Afghanistan remains the world’s largest producer of opium and has an under-reported but growing heroin-use problem. Current drug control policies in Afghanistan lack focus and are unrealistic, driven by headlines rather than evidence. They reflect a need for immediate signs of hope rather than a serious analysis of the underlying causes and an effort to achieve long-term solutions.
Watch the opening speech of the DPA director at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in New Mexico (November 12 -14, 2009). He said "right now the wind is at our back" - highlighting how the drug policy reform movement has an unprecedented momentum to end the drug war in the United States.
This newly published paper considers some of the normative, legal, policy and institutional challenges posed by international human rights law to the UN drug control system. It is co-authored by Damon Barrett from IHRA and Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal decriminalized all drugs making drug possession for personal use and drug usage administrative violations, removed from the criminal realm. Decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, and drug-related pathologies have decreased dramatically. The Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success and should guide drug policy debates around the world.
In this report, Transform Drug Policy Foundation demonstrates that moving to the legal regulation of drugs is not an unthinkable, politically impossible step in the dark, but a sensible, pragmatic approach to control drug production, supply and use.
Despite the achievements reached since harm reduction was introduced in Malaysia since 2005, the tension between law enforcement and public health persists.
