The recent WHO decision to maintain the international classification of coca leaf highlights ongoing tensions between drug control frameworks and Indigenous rights, cultural practices and scientific evidence.
Obregón et al. conclude that Chile’s first peer-led drug checking service at music events reveals significant levels of adulteration and underscores the need to expand harm reduction services.
The WHO has upheld the coca leaf’s severe international scheduling, maintaining restrictions despite evidence of its safety and longstanding Indigenous use.
UN experts raised serious concerns about implementation gaps, including conditions and coercive practices in drug rehabilitation centres operating without adequate oversight.
Civil society groups from around the world reject the 'war on drugs' narrative being used to justify pressure, interference, and intervention in Venezuela—warning of militarisation, human rights violations, and dangerous regional precedents.
By recommending that coca remain in the most restrictive category, the WHO has reinforced a decades-old, colonial classification that undermines scientific research and Indigenous rights.
A wave of lethal U.S. airstrikes in Latin America and the Caribbean has sparked international outrage over their legality, human cost, and troubling escalation of punitive drug control.
