Branwen Lloyd* At the end of summer 2019 the GDPO was successful in an application to Swansea University’s Higher Education Funding Council for Wales – Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) scheme. The GCRF is a £1.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government in 2015 to support cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by…Continue Reading Cultivating Change: The Contemporary Challenges of Studying Cannabis Regulation in Jamaica
Drugs, Prisons and ‘Unintended Consequences’ – Does drug interdiction drive drug-related harms?
Rick Lines, Olivia Howells and Daniel Webb* The availability of drugs in prisons around the world is well documented. In Europe alone, up to seventy percent of people in prison have used an illicit drug. In Canada, forty-eight percent of prisoners in federal correctional institutions have had ‘problems’ with drugs. In Australia, one in six…Continue Reading Drugs, Prisons and ‘Unintended Consequences’ – Does drug interdiction drive drug-related harms?
What have the Russians done for us in the international drug policy field? A timely reminder to take back control
Axel Klein, GDPO Senior Research Associate. April 24, 2019. At the 62nd meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March this year the tensions between states with widely diverging drug policies finally came to the surface. On the floor of the plenary meeting the Russian delegation took Canada to task for ‘violating…Continue Reading What have the Russians done for us in the international drug policy field? A timely reminder to take back control
Yes, legalizing marijuana breaks treaties. We can deal with that.
By John Walsh, Tom Blickman, Martin Jelsma and Dave Bewley-Taylor This Op-Ed was originally published in iPolitics on December 11th, 2017 Buzzing in the background of Canada’s debate on cannabis legalization is the issue of the three UN drug control treaties, and what to do with them. The issue arose during the House of Commons’…Continue Reading Yes, legalizing marijuana breaks treaties. We can deal with that.
View from the Ground – Harm reduction, drug policy and the law in the Maghreb: focus on Morocco and Algeria
View from the Ground – Harm reduction, drug policy and the law in the Maghreb: focus on Morocco and Algeria Khalid Tinasti, Geneva Global Drug Policy Observatory, Swansea University October 2016 As WordPress doesn’t allow referencing, full PDF with references available here: khalid_blog-maghreb-drug-policy_final Introduction: The Maghreb countries, part of the Arab Maghreb Union, are Algeria, Libya,…Continue Reading View from the Ground – Harm reduction, drug policy and the law in the Maghreb: focus on Morocco and Algeria
View From the Ground: Bocas del Toro; Drugs in Paradise
By Alastair Smith, Panama Following exploratory fieldwork in the rural coca growing fields of Colombia, GDPO followed the cocaine supply chain to Panama. Most recently, time spent on the Northern Caribbean coast soon revealed the permeation of drug trafficking into the already complex socioeconomic context that many perceive as paradise. First impressions of Bocas del…Continue Reading View From the Ground: Bocas del Toro; Drugs in Paradise
Has the US just called for unilateral interpretation of multilateral obligations?
by Rick Lines And Damon Barrett [Dr Rick Lines and Damon Barrett are the Chair and Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, University of Essex] This post was originally published here These are interesting times for drug law reform, which, as it gathers pace, is asking important questions of international law. A UN General Assembly Special Session…Continue Reading Has the US just called for unilateral interpretation of multilateral obligations?
Fatal attraction: Brownfield’s flexibility doctrine and global drug policy reform
This post was first published here at the Huffington Post A joint contribution by: Professor Dave Bewley-Taylor Director, Global Drug Policy Observatory, Swansea University Martin Jelsma Coordinator, Transnational Institute Drugs and Democracy Programme Damon Barrett Director, International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy ___________________________________ State-level cannabis reforms, which gathered steam this month, have exposed the…Continue Reading Fatal attraction: Brownfield’s flexibility doctrine and global drug policy reform
Country Snapshot: Drugs in Zimbabwe
Africa is witnessing an upsurge in illicit drug trafficking as well as an increase in illicit drug use and the problems associated therewith. Whilst data in the region is sketchy, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report of 2013 estimates that there are 28 million drug users in Africa. They…Continue Reading Country Snapshot: Drugs in Zimbabwe
Time for UN to open up dialogue on drug policy reform and end counter-productive blame-game
As the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) launched its annual report on Tuesday, 4 March, amidst an unprecedented crisis in the international drug control regime, leading drug policy reform experts have called on the INCB and related UN institutions to urgently open up a constructive dialogue on international drug policy reform. Approval of legally…Continue Reading Time for UN to open up dialogue on drug policy reform and end counter-productive blame-game