• EMCDDA report presents latest evidence on heroin-assisted treatment for hard-to-treat opioid users

    First state-of-the-art overview on new heroin-assisted treatment
    EMCDDA press release
    Thursday, April 19, 2012

    A small population of chronic heroin users, once thought to be ‘untreatable’, is now benefiting from a novel type of therapy using medicinal heroin as the substitution drug. In a new report out today from the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA), experts describe the development as ‘an important clinical step forward’. The report, New heroin-assisted treatment, provides the first state-of-the-art overview of research on the subject, examining the latest evidence and clinical experience in this area in Europe and internationally.

  • Injection room finally finds a home

    The Copenhagen Post (Denmark)
    Thursday, April 19, 2012

    Some obstacles remain before the injection room, which may cost as much as 18 million kroner to set up, can become a reality - including an expected law change that will decriminalise the taking of drugs in the facility. "It will sadly take over a year to establish the injection room in Mændenes Hjem," Warming said. "That is why we have created the temporary injection room in the health centre."

  • Time for open, informed debate on drug policy

    International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
    Thursday, April 19, 2012

    Latin American leaders have said recently that the West’s "war on drugs" has failed, and a new book from the International Institute for Strategic Studies agrees. At this week’s launch of Drugs, Insecurity and Failed States: The Problems of Prohibition, IISS expert and former MI6 deputy director Nigel Inkster said a new approach was needed in which drugs were treated as an issue to be managed rather than as a problem to be solved.

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  • Dutch marijuana advocates face off with Cabinet

    Associated Press
    Wednesday, April 18, 2012

    coffeeshopDutch coffee shop owners went to court in a last ditch bid to block a government plan to stop foreigners from buying marijuana in the Netherlands. The coffee shops oppose what would be the most significant change in decades to the country's famed soft drug tolerance: turning marijuana cafes into "members only" clubs open solely to Dutch residents. Members would only be able to get into the coffee shops by registering for a "weed pass" and the shops would only be allowed a maximum of 2,000 members. The move comes into force in the south of the country May 1 and is scheduled to roll out nationwide on Jan. 1, 2013.

  • New US anti-drug policy stresses treatment, prevention

    AFP
    Wednesday, April 18, 2012

    The White House unveiled a new drug policy strategy that veers away from imposing heavy prison sentences for illicit drug use and focuses instead on prevention and treatment. The new approach looks at drug addiction as a treatable disease rather than a crime. The Drug Policy Alliance, a leading pro-reform group, dismissed the new drug strategy as being "almost identical" to those of previous administrations. The Obama administration "is prioritizing low-level drug arrests, trampling on state medical marijuana laws, and expanding supply-side interdiction approaches -- while not doing enough to actually reduce the harms of drug addiction and misuse."

  • California's "Princeton of Pot" reopens in bare-bones state

    Reuters
    Wednesday, April 18, 2012

    A California school known as the "Princeton of Pot" has reopened after a federal raid, but with a bare-bones staff of volunteers to teach the art of cannabis cultivation, after the crackdown crimped its funding and forced it to lay off 25 paid employees. The raid earlier this month on Oaksterdam University, which offers courses on the growing and dispensing of marijuana, turned the Oakland-based school into the latest flashpoint between federal law enforcement and medical cannabis advocates in states where pot has been decriminalized for medicinal purposes.

  • Obama and the failed war on drugs

    Bernd Debusmann
    Reuters
    Monday, April 16, 2012

    we_need_weedLong before he was in a position to change his country's policies, Barack Obama had firm views on a complex problem: "The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws. We need to rethink how we're operating the drug war." That was in January 2004. Forward to April 2012 and a summit of Latin American leaders, several of whom have become vocal critics of the U.S.-driven war on drugs, in the Colombian city of Cartagena. More than three years into his presidency, Obama made clear that he is not in favor of legalizing drugs or of ending policies that treat drug users as criminals.

  • Summit of the Americas agree war on drugs a failure

    Editorial
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Monday, April 16, 2012

    This weekend’s Summit of the Americas did not produce a joint communiqué charting the future of the hemisphere, but the 31 leaders agreed on one thing: The U.S.-led war on drugs has been a dismal failure. The summit pledged to create a panel of experts through the Organization of American States to consider drug policy reforms, and new approaches to stem the violence and power of the drug cartels. In the words of Guatemalan President Otto Perez, a champion of drug liberalization, it is time to “stop being dumb witnesses to a global deceit” and consider treatment, harm reduction and decriminalization as viable alternatives.

  • Colombia calls for global drugs taskforce

    Colombian leader uses Summit of the Americas to call for radical review of international policy on drugs
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, April 15, 2012

    The government of Colombia pushed for the most far-reaching change to policy on drugs since US president Richard Nixon declared war on narcotics four decades ago. Hosting the sixth Summit of the Americas, for which 33 leaders of the hemisphere's 35 nations – including President Barack Obama – have assembled in Cartagena, President Juan Manuel Santos proposed the establishment of a taskforce of experts, economists and academics to analyse the realities of global drug addiction, trafficking and profiteering, with a view to a complete overhaul of strategy.

  • At summit, drug talk likely to be hot but hidden

    The Summit of the Americas is focused on roads and ports. But behind closed doors, leaders will discuss drug policies
    The Miami Herald (US)
    Saturday, April 14, 2012

    obama-cumbre-santosAs the hemisphere’s leaders gather in Colombia this week for the VI Summit of the Americas, their on-camera discussions will be dominated by perennial convention topics: poverty, cooperation, the need for roads. But behind closed doors, they are expected to tackle a more contentious issue: the narcotics trade.

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