Report on the meeting of the open-ended intergovernmental expert working group on international cooperation on the eradication of illicit drug crops and on alternative development, held in Vienna from 2 to 4 July 2008

International cooperation against the world drug problem: progress achieved in meeting the goals and targets set out in the Political Declaration adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session.

Evidence reported reveals that 38% of those arrested in 2006-07 for offences of theft tested positive for heroin and/or crack cocaine.

In 2005, the 27 member states of the European Union agreed a drug strategy that runs from 2005 to 2012, with a mid-term review of progress in 2008. This advocacy note gives the IDPC perspective on this progress review, and makes recommendations for the action plan for the remaining 4 years of the…

The third of our regular "UNGASS News" updates, keeping the network up to speed with developments in the review process, reports on the Demand Reduction Expert Working Group and the 2008 Global ATS Report from UNODC.

TNI have released a new report entitled "Withdrawal Symptoms: Changes in the Southeast Asian Drugs Market”. The studies findings are that the significant decline in opium production in Burma and Laos, which has been heralded as a major success for international drug control policy, is having a…

IHRA's 'HR2' (Harm Reduction and Human Rights) team have released a new report entitled "Human Rights, Health and Harm Reduction: States' Amnesia and Parallel Universes”.

This Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme briefing paper presents a critical assessment of Plan Colombia. Originally proposed as a peace programme, this soon became a military strategy aimed at weakening the link between illicit drugs and insurgency.

This IDPC response describes and critiques the positions taken in the Report, and attempts to articulate the nature of the future challenges faced by member states as they prepare for the review meeting in March 2009.

There have been two primary sources of information for the evaluation of progress against the set of objectives and actions listed in the action plan - the latest Annual Report of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction..

The European Commission has circulated a draft of the next action plan to member states for their comments This document is due to be debated by member states' representatives at two meetings of the Horizontal Working Group on Drugs (HDG) held, respectively, on 29 September, and 13/14 October 2008.

In the new 2008 World Drug Report the UNODC is trying to hide failures behind a bad history lesson.

This article looks at the role of enforcement in reducing drug-related harms.

The priorities of the French Presidency of the EU have been published and the fight against drugs and drug addiction has been expressly included as a constant objective essential to the protection of citizens. The French presidency will facilitate the negotiation of the new EU action plan against…

This is the second edition of UNGASS News, that provides an update on the progress of the United Nations review of the global drug control system.

Following the call at the AIDS High Level Meeting in New York for more effective HIV prevention amongst injecting drug users, a group of NGOs initiated a sign on letter to senior UN officials pointing out the contradictions between the drive to tackle this problem, and the stigmatisation and…