The harms of the Indian drug war are particularly harsh in Punjab, the western state bordering Pakistan, as state authorities have struggled for years to deal with uncontrolled drug demand, supply, and inadequate treatment. A Parliamentary Panel Report from 2023 unveiled the reality of the drug market. They estimated there were 6,600,000 people using drugs in Punjab, with 697,000 children aged 10-17 years identified with some form of substance use disorders (SUD). Drug-related deaths in Punjab are also one of the highest in the country, a total of 266 deaths reported from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2023. As reported by the State Assembly, nearly 6.2 lakh addicts were currently in government-run treatment centres, with around 6.12 lakh in private treatment facilities. Punjab clearly is a state in crisis.

There is nothing remotely new in calls for a drug-free Punjab, or cracking down on drug use or selling – these are repeated rhetorics across drug policies in the state and nationwide, often failing to achieve its lofty goals. It is high time to engage in a serious re-evaluation of the strategy or can we look for a different approach altogether.

What has dominated Punjab’s efforts at drug control for the past decade has been increasingly a ‘securitised’, enforcement-led approach. Although drug control efforts have included treatment, rehabilitation and preventive education with focus on compassion, care and circumvention, they have not transformed the punitive intent of all the past drug strategies.

However, the dismal outcomes of Punjab’s illicit drug policy are all too evident. A serious evaluation of the systemic failures is needed, as enforcement has been unable to curtail rising use and harms around problematic use and addiction, or the human rights violations at de-addiction treatment centres and jails, and unimpressive demand reduction initiatives which have not prevented soaring rates of addiction and drug-related fatalities.

Drug markets in the post-pandemic period have changed significantly, and a fresh approach to reducing harms is needed. The appearance of synthetic opioids like fentanyl adulterating in the heroin supply led to a spike in overdose deaths; the lack of an early warning drug system prevents any analysis of changing product dynamics. Drones are increasingly used by drugs sellers to send substances from Pakistan to India, with over 200 drones seized in 2024 alone – double the previous year’s results. Participation in the illegal drug economy is also expanding, with a rising number of women involved in it: an Indian Express 2023 investigation highlighted how some of the most deprived areas of Punjab saw spikes in rates of female involvement in the drug trade, particularly in areas with low numbers of legal jobs.

Punjab needs healing: Drug policy struggles in India

This briefing paper provides an overview of the harm reduction response in Nigeria in relation to the drug law and policy landscape. The aim is to support stakeholders—including civil society organisations, advocates, and policymakers—in identifying opportunities to improve the health and rights of people who use drugs.

The paper highlights major gaps in the legal and policy environment that restrict access to harm reduction services in Nigeria, such as needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) and opioid substitution therapy (OST), despite their recognition in national guidelines. It also outlines the roles of key institutions and actors in shaping the national response to drug use and harm reduction, and provides recommendations for ensuring a more enabling environment.

Harm reduction landscape and drug laws in Nigeria

We are currently witnessing the beginning of the end of drug prohibition, with alternatives such as harm reduction, decriminalization, and legal regulation of cannabis, cocaine, psychedelics, ketamine, and MDMA/ecstasy on the agenda of governments across the world.

This provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build markets that prioritise justice, equity, and sustainability. By learning from past mistakes and collaborating across sectors, we can create drug policies that benefit people, protect the environment, and strengthen societies. Our series of briefings outline the key opportunities posed by emergent drug reforms, and how they can be shaped to deliver equity across nine areas of social justice.

The legal regulation of drugs: the potential to deliver global justice

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has declared a war on drug traffickers, announcing that Hungary will amend its constitution to criminalise drug use. However, civil society warns that this approach is bound to fail and a more integrated, health-focused approach is needed instead.

Gergely Gulyás, spokesperson for the Hungarian government, announced at a press conference on Thursday that the government plans to amend the constitution to include a constitutional ban on the use of illicit drugs. This amendment will be introduced alongside other changes, such as the constitutional declaration that humans can only be male or female, and that the protection of children’s physical, spiritual, and moral development takes priority over everything except the protection of life. Hungary was the first country in the world to introduce a constitutional ban on rough sleeping (homelessness), and it will now become the first country to ban drug use in its constitution. As drug use is already criminalised in Hungary, this legal change is expected to have little practical impact. However, the government has also created a new 150-strong Office Against Drugs (KBEH) within the national police force to “fight against drug trafficking.”

This announcement came just days after Prime Minister Orbán declared a war on drugs in his annual “State of the Nation” speech, claiming that traffickers of synthetic drugs deserve no mercy. “Cheap, toxic concoctions, synthetic substances have flooded the country,” he said, referring to so-called new psychoactive substances, such as synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones. Although these “new” drugs have been present in the Hungarian drug market since the early 2010s, their use has increased in recent years, particularly among marginalised communities, such as those in segregated Roma settlements. According to Orbán, the trafficking of these drugs “must be eliminated.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’s new war on drugs

This report evaluates the economic impacts of legalising and regulating cannabis for adult non-medical use in the UK from a Treasury perspective of income and spending. The report focuses on government revenues (corporation and income tax, VAT, National Insurance, licensing fees, and, in the scenario of a state monopoly model, profits), savings across the criminal justice system (CJS) from reduced costs on enforcement, and the costs of administering a regulatory model.

For Transform, economic arguments for cannabis, though significant, are secondary to public health and social justice policy priorities. But the economic dimensions of the cannabis reform debate are undoubtedly gaining
political salience, particularly as governments face growing budgetary pressures. Public support for cannabis reform, particularly for economic reasons, such as disrupting illegal profits and the potential tax income, is growing in both the U.S. and the UK.

This report analyses three different regulatory scenarios:

1. Home-grow provision for personal use, and non-profit membership-based associations, with no commercial retail

2. Hybrid model including home grow, non-profit associations and regulated commercial retail

3. A Hybrid model Home grow, non-profit associations, and commercial retail operating under a state monopoly (profits on retail sale accrue to the state)


High returns: The economic benefits of UK cannabis legalisation

Reclaim power. Resist injustice. Reform drug laws.

The Support. Don’t Punish campaign is a lifeline for democratic 

. For over a decade, we have organised a powerful and decentralised movement that centres communities challenging punitive drug policies and advocating for harm reduction.

On 26 June 2025, we invite you to join us once more in collective action to build sustainable alternatives to the ‘war on drugs’.

Our journey started back in 2013 and has developed from mobilisation in a couple of dozen cities to a vibrant ecosystem that last year sparked change in 

 worldwide! From community dialogues, to public demonstrations, artistic expressions, and policy discussions, 

our voices thunder through streets, radio shows and parliaments alike!

— bringing us together to oppose stigma and injustice, while fostering change in laws, policies and practices that undermine our communities’ wellbeing.

Are you ready for 2025? Now is the time to prepare! 

Our habitual ‘Call for Expressions of Interest’ will open in March, offering opportunities to receive financial and practical support for your activities. As you develop your reasoning, remember that 

This year is atypical as the US foreign aid freeze poses significant challenges to the harm reduction movement. As we navigate pain and uncertainty, we invite you to be 

and, more than ever, reach out to existing 

and solidarity. The anti-rights movement may want us diminished, but history shows that 

. Whether through direct action, media campaigns, or political advocacy, we will continue to reclaim power, resist injustice and reform harmful drug laws. 

RESPOND TO THE CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST HERE

Hold on to each other. Stay tuned for updates. Start planning now! 💚

Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action 2025

In Lisbon, which was once the heroin capital of Europe, safe-use spaces such as IN Mouraria are a relatively new innovation. Over the country’s 20-year experiment with decriminalization, public health leaders here have learned that providing spaces for people to take drugs with access to health and social care services helps them to get a grip on their dependencies. “People are desperate to find a community to get sober,” Caldas says. Some “visit us after a few years without taking drugs, and you see the difference in them. It’s absolutely incredible.”

In 1999, Portugal saw a record high 369 deaths from drug overdoses. Most were related to heroin. The crisis spurred decriminalization and ramped-up funding for rehabilitation programs that have since helped reduce the annual number of deaths from overdose to about 80. Meanwhile, the rate of HIV infection in Portugal, which once accounted for more than half of cases across the entire European Union, has also plummeted.

Statistics like these and the existence of facilities such as IN Mouraria are signs that a new dawn is appearing above the wreckage left in the wake of a futile half-century war on drugs. In Portugal and elsewhere around the world, policymakers are reckoning with the reality that no matter how many millions of people are imprisoned, and no matter how much money is spent on anti-drug policies, people are going to continue to do drugs. Despite the U.N.’s 1998 declaration that a drug-free world was possible and the U.S. spending more than a trillion dollars over the past 50 years to stymie drug use, rates of use have risen hand-in-hand with significant upticks in addiction and death, even while most people take and enjoy drugs without any serious harm.

A new dawn for the failed war on drugs

Tuesday, 22 April 2025 / 13:00 - 14:30 (London time - 

: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iTZ2PohuRKG5ESpqaafgkA 

The 68th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has been historic in many regards - the first ever vote on all CND resolutions in decades, a reshuffling of alliances among Member States following the drastic shifts in US positions, and the adoption of a resolution establishing an independent panel to rethink the international drug control regime. This webinar is an opportunity to reflect on this CND session - and discuss the implications for the future of UN drug policy.

, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations (Vienna)

, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

, International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)

, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

CND68 and drug policy reform: Unpacking key implications

This report summarises the discussions and conclusions of the meeting, but does not reflect the institutional positions of the co-hosting parties.

9TH BRANDENBURG FORUM ON DRUGS AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES 

“Boosting Transformative Change in Global Drug Policies: Promoting Human-Centered Approaches to Cocaine Markets and Beyond” MEETING REPORT

The 9th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies (BBF) took place from 19th to 21st November 2024 at Schloss Lübbenau in Brandenburg, Germany. The Forum was organised by the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented under political patronage of the Commissioner of the Federal Government for Drug and Addiction Policy. The meeting was co-hosted by the Government of the Netherlands, the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC). 

The Forum was attended by 52 participants from around the world – including government representatives from Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Switzerland, Thailand and the USA. Also in attendance were officials from the European Union (EU), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as well as leading non-governmental organisations. In order to promote open dialogue, discussions were conducted under the ‘Chatham House Rule’ whereby the content of discussions can be shared but neither the identity nor the affiliation of any participants should be revealed. For the first time, the BBF dedicated its first day to a thematic focus: the global cocaine situation and approaches for transformative change with a view towards cocaine markets.

8th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

7th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

6th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

5th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

4th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

3rd Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

2nd Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

1st Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies

9th Brandenburg Forum on Drugs and Development Policies report - 'Boosting transformative change in global drug policies: Promoting human-centred approaches to cocaine markets and beyond'

Reform Drug Policy. Join us in Detroit. #Reform2025

The Reform Conference is the premier gathering of the growing and dynamic drug policy reform movement. Every other year, the 

 hosts this event, bringing together people working on the full range of drug policy issues from across the United States and around the world to listen, learn, and strategize. In 2025, the conference will take place in Detroit, Michigan from November 12-15.

We offer two scholarship programs to support the attendance of people directly impacted by the drug war and to ensure that the diversity of our movement is reflected in our Reform Conference attendees.

The scholarship funds are meant for people who are:

in need of financial assistance to attend the conference,

in a position to clearly benefit from going to the conference,

directly impacted by the drug war, and/or

already affiliated with a complimentary or allied movement, with a solid potential to take home new knowledge, skills and contacts that will benefit their local work in any and all issue areas of the drug policy reform movement.

The International Scholarships application 

 If you are based outside of the U.S. and need financial assistance to attend the Reform Conference, 

The National Scholarships applications will open after May 15th. If you are based in the U.S. and need financial assistance to attend the Reform Conference, we will have two applications available – one for individuals and one for groups planning to bring 4 or more people to the conference.

We strategized, built community, and organized around:

Decriminalizing Drugs and Building Health-Based Alternatives

Ensuring Our Systems Help, Not Hurt by Uprooting the Drug War from Our Daily Lives

Reinvesting Resources into Communities and Divesting from Punitive Police Responses

Rethinking and Reducing Punishment of People in the Drug Trade

Legalizing and Regulating Drugs the Right Way

 to see programs and videos from previous years.

International Drug Policy Reform Conference 2025

Over the holidays, I received so many messages from friends that I should watch 

. I haven’t had a chance to see it but apparently it has moved so many people and opened their eyes to the situation of persons deprived of liberty in our country. I’m glad to hear of this development and happy to hear of a movie that humanizes one of the most stigmatized sectors of our society, reaching a wider audience and enjoy some commercial success. There is much to learn about the situation of our PDLs and I hope watching 

 is just the beginning of getting more Filipinos to advocate for their rights.
(...)

If we really want to decongest our jails, aside from reviewing and amending the Revised Penal Code, we must also review and amend our drug law. This was one of the main recommendations to come out of national sectoral consultations held in preparation for the Philippine Drug Policy and Law Reform Summit held last July 2024. Yes, another summit, I’m sorry, but this was the first time there was a conversation between representatives from different government agencies including law enforcement, local governments, nongovernment organizations, and community organizations about how the drug law has affected our justice system and our communities in such a profoundly harmful way.

Philippines: Will watching ‘Green Bones’ help decongest our jails?

Today, 10th December 2024, marks International Human Rights Day, with this year’s theme being ‘

’. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk 

, the aim of this day is to ‘inspire everyone to acknowledge the importance and relevance of human rights, change perceptions by countering negative stereotypes and misconceptions and mobilize action to reinvigorate a global movement for human rights’.

A global view shows that 2024’s track record has been disastrous in terms of human rights. The war in Ukraine continues unabated, with an increasing number of killings and little hope of a resolution in the coming months. In the Middle East, violence also continues to escalate, with an ongoing genocide in Palestine claiming the lives of thousands, the more recent 

 and the civil war in Syria. The impacts of armed conflicts, escalating violence and humanitarian crises are 

 by the most vulnerable and marginalised, with people who use drugs generally being pushed to the very back of the queue for any emergency support offered to civilians in those contexts.

At the same time, the rise in authoritarian regimes and far-right powers across Europe, as well as in North America with the recent re-election of Donald Trump, does not bode well for the future of protecting human rights, while civil society space continues to face more and more restrictions. In the Netherlands (so long a global champion of progressive drug policies), our long-term member organisation 

 is facing drastic budget cuts from the Dutch Government, while in Serbia NGOs such as DPNSEE and others are being threatened by the possibility of yet another ‘foreign agent law’ similar to that in Russia, Georgia and elsewhere in the region.

On the ground, as we were preparing our ‘

’ for the 2024 Midterm Review in Vienna, IDPC members reported an alarming rise in human rights abuses committed in the name of drug control across all regions. In all corners of the world, people continue to be denied access to essential medicines for pain relief and palliative care (as emphasized by the 

 in its own message for International Human Rights Day), while life-saving harm reduction and treatment services remain too limited, underfunded, and under constant threat of closure. As the toxic and unpredictable drug supply is driving overdose deaths, harm reduction and safer supply is becoming more urgent.

Punitive drug control is also responsible for widespread cases of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, record numbers of people being executed for drug offences, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances with complete impunity. 

 and the use of new technologies such as databases and mass surveillance campaigns are being increasingly used in drug control, with the inevitable violations on digital rights and the right to privacy, among many others. As always, it is people from specific ethnicities, genders and living in poverty who remain the most targeted and impacted by such punitive drug policies.

The reversal of decriminalisation policies in places like 

 (USA) and British Columbia (Canada) this year has also been a major cause for concern for the advocates who have been promoting this policy for decades.

Nevertheless, even in the midst of this bleak panorama, there has been important progress in the area of human rights which we must celebrate. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has 

 in promoting a rights- and health-based approach to drug policy across the UN system, with the High Commissioner himself attending the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) 

 for the first time in March. Last week, Volker Türk also 

 at the European Harm Reduction Conference in Warsaw.

In parallel, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health produced a 

 entirely dedicated to harm reduction, drug use and the right to health in June, with a 

 published in October - with clear recommendations on the need to scale up and fund a large array of harm reduction services, to decriminalise drug use and related activities, to legally regulate drugs, and to review the UN drug control regime to ensure that it is aligned with harm reduction and the operationalisation of the right to health. These reports were mentioned in the drugs ‘omnibus’ resolution which was 

last month at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. In a major win, it is the first time that a drugs ‘omnibus’ resolution adopted by consensus does not include any language on the unrealistic and harmful goal of achieving a ‘society free of drug abuse’.

UN human rights treaty bodies are also increasingly taking on the issue of drug policy within their work. This is particularly the case of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 

 alone, the Committee urged eight countries to ensure access to harm reduction and/or to decriminalise people who use drugs.

Importantly, the rights of Indigenous Peoples took the centre stage this year thanks to the initiation of a 

 by the World Health Organization. Requested by Bolivia with the support of Colombia, this review is a first step in an attempt to address the colonial legacy of the global drug control framework and align it with human rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples to cultivate, trade and use a plant that has been part of their ancestral, cultural and religious heritage for millennia.

 in March, Member States finally approved a resolution including the term ‘

’ after the first CND vote on a resolution in four decades. This is a major win, of course, but this recognition is also coming far too late, just 23 years after the term was 

 at the UN General Assembly. Still, the discussions around the human rights implications of drug policy at the CND are gathering pace, mainly thanks to the tireless work of IDPC’s network of members and allies, and to the increasing presence of UN human rights experts in Vienna.

However, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - the lead UN agency on drug-related matters - continues to be alarmingly out of step with the rest of the UN system. Despite 

, this year will see yet another International Human Rights Day where UNODC’s Executive Director Ghada Waly maintains a deafening silence in the face of blatant human rights abuses. The 

 (launched in June) is also emblematic of this disconnect - showcasing the UNODC’s 

 to recognise the serious harms of criminalisation, or to even use the term ‘harm reduction’ in a special chapter dedicated to the right to health in the context of drug use.

At a time when global leadership on human rights is becoming all the more critical, the UNODC continues to disregard global evidence of the failures of prohibition and the need to promote and protect human rights across all spheres of the UN.

As IDPC, we now look to 2025, and the key battles ahead as we continue to advocate for drug policies that are truly grounded in social justice and human rights.

Drug law reform