• Opponents of the War on Drugs are not satisfied with the UN's plan to end it

    Drug reform advocates have long criticized Vienna-centric negotiations over global drug policy
    Vice (US)
    Monday, March 14, 2016

    After decades of prohibition, 2016 could be the year governments around the world admit that the war on drugs has failed. Or, just as easily, they could maintain the status quo. Next month, the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) will endorse a resolution that many hoped would encourage countries to stop locking up and marginalizing drug users, and instead embrace harm reduction, alternatives to incarceration, and even decriminalization. But, as the UN's Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND) convened in Vienna for its annual meeting ahead of UNGASS, nearly 200 civil society groups and opponents of the drug war released a joint letter that said the planning for next month's event is "perilously close to representing a serious systemic failure of the UN system."

  • Unravelling the human cost of global drug policy

    Why has drug prohibition had so many negative effects on communities and human rights? What changes are needed?
    Open Democracy (US)
    March 14-19, 2016

    fumigationcolombiaThe international drug control system has caused much greater damage than the substances it targets. Gross human rights violations have been committed in its name. And after five decades of harsh legal enforcement, criminalisation and militarisation (largely outside the consumption centres of Europe and north America), it has failed to reduce the drug trade. In the articles, videos and personal stories being published this week, we look at the consequences of this punitive approach in different parts of the world, the myths involved, the gender and race implications, security structures and economic links. We also begin to explore alternative policies.

  • Three leaders from Latin America call for decriminalizing drug use

    Diplomats attending the UN special session on drugs next month must confront the obvious failure of most existing drug laws
    Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria and Ernesto Zedillo
    Los Angeles Times (US)
    Friday, March 11, 2016

    drug-war-ciudad-juarezOutdated drug policies around the world have resulted in soaring drug-related violence, overstretched criminal justice systems, runaway corruption and mangled democratic institutions. After reviewing the evidence, consulting drug policy experts and examining our own failures on this front while in office, we came to an unavoidable conclusion: The “war on drugs” is an unmitigated disaster. (See also: Public Statement on the UNGASS 2016 process and draft outcome document, by Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP)

  • Ghana to decriminalize narcotics?

    Reformers want the government to focus on rehabilitation of drug users rather than on legal penalties
    Deutsche Welle (Germany)
    Friday, March 11, 2016

    The United Nations is due to hold a special session on drug policy in April and one of Ghana's most famous sons, Kofi Annan, has already weighed into a heated debate. Annan, who served as UN Secretary General from 1997 to 2006, is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The executive secretary of Ghana's Narcotics Control Board, Akrasi Sarpong, is a longtime campaigner for the drug policy reform. His board is tasked with tracking down and detaining people who deal in, or use, illicit substances. Sarpong believes the confiscation of narcotics and jailing of the dealers has little impact on drug use. (See also: Ghana: The journey to decriminalization)

  • Top US international drug official signals green light for countries to decriminalize

    Latest sign that the US is walking back decades of hardline rhetoric
    Vice (US)
    Wednesday, March 9, 2016

    William Brownfield, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, gave a qualified go-ahead for countries to decriminalize drugs. A consensus outcome document currently under negotiation at the Committee on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna is expected to be finalized by the middle of next week, he said, and will be presented at the UN special session (UNGASS). American officials were attempting to "find areas of pragmatic reform" with other member states over drug policy. (See also: Drug Czar: Treating substance abuse as a crime is "inhumane")

  • Voters are doing what politicians won’t on marijuana reform

    Only two states have seen serious attempts to address marijuana legalization via the legislature
    The Washington Post (US)
    Wednesday, March 9, 2016

    marijuana-handMassachusetts' top politicians just came out swinging against legal marijuana. Voters there are on track to decide whether to legalize marijuana at the ballot box this November. But the state's Republican governor and Democratic attorney general have penned an op-ed with Boston's mayor encouraging residents to Just Say No. They argue that regular marijuana use causes IQ declines (studies say no, it doesn't), that it impairs brain development (latest research says no), and that it negatively impacts graduation rates and career success (not that simple). They argue that a commercial market will lead to more teens using the drug (hasn't happened in Washington and Colorado -- yet).

  • This is how the Lib Dems would legalise cannabis

    Sales of cannabis to over-18s in the UK should be legalised and "social clubs" should be established to sell it
    Wired (UK)
    Tuesday, March 8, 2016

    uk-cannabis-plantation-policeThe Liberal Democrats have backed a study that argues cannabis can't be eliminated by a "total ban" and that it should, instead, be regulated. The report, A framework for a regulated market for cannabis in the UK, puts forward a number of suggestions for how drug policy should be updated: (1) The sale of cannabis to over-18s should be legalised; (2) it would be sold over the counter by licensed vendors, in plain packaging with any health risks written on it; (3) home-growth for personal use, should be allowed; and (4) a regulator should be created to oversee the cannabis market. (See also: Cannabis legalisation in UK 'would raise £1bn a year in taxes')

  • Health Canada flagged nine key considerations in legalizing marijuana

    Early lessons from the U.S. reinforce the need to take time to implement a legalized model
    CP24 (Canada)
    Saturday, March 5, 2016

    canada-pot-flag3As the Liberal government began moving on its commitment to legalize marijuana, Health Canada flagged nine key considerations – from health risks and benefits to the experience of other jurisdictions, newly obtained documents show. A November 2015 ministerial briefing presentation, "Legalizing & Regulating Marijuana," was released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. Some conclusions and recommendations were withheld from release, but the document offers insight into how the new government will navigate the issue.

  • Coffeeshops getting more cannabis from outside Netherlands

    The law may even have backfired
    NL Times (Netherlands)
    Friday, March 4, 2016

    The only effect the new Opium Act had is that coffeeshops are now getting more cannabis from abroad. The major illegal cannabis cultivators did not stop their activities, they simply moved them to outside the Netherlands, BNR reports based on information from several experts and people from the soft drugs industry. The new Opium Act was implemented on March 1st last year. It made anything to do with cannabis cultivation illegal, including selling items used in the cultivation. The government hoped that the new law will make it easier to address the major illegal growers.

  • Not just a party drug: no ketamine means no surgery in some developing countries

    China’s desire to tighten controls on the drug threatens surgery in many developing countries where it’s the only affordable option for anaesthesia
    The Guardian (UK)
    Thursday, March 3, 2016

    My supply of ketamine is under threat. I’m not a recreational drug taker. I’m an anaesthetist, and for me ketamine is medicine. In rural hospitals in Nigeria, injecting the drug is essential for pregnant women to have safe ceasareans, and for us to be able to insert IVs for fluids and attach the required monitors to children prior to an operation without a struggle. Some of my colleagues advocate the use of oral ketamine in soda for procedures in the emergency department. China's drive to place ketamine under international control at the United Nations would severely affect the supply and ketamine would become unavailable in more remote areas.

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