This blog was first posted here The UN Commission considers to bring ketamine under the control of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances contrary to WHO recommendations Martin Jelsma Monday, February 16, 2015 The 58th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2015 has been asked to consider a Chinese proposal…Continue Reading CND decision to schedule ketamine would undermine WHO treaty mandate
Worrying proposals to discuss the international scheduling of Ketamine at the CND in March 2015
As noted in the 2014 TNI – IDPC report Scheduling in the international drug control system, although often viewed as an obscure technical issue, the problem of scheduling lies at the core of the functioning of the international drug control system. Scheduling – the classification of a substance within a graded system of controls and restrictions, or…Continue Reading Worrying proposals to discuss the international scheduling of Ketamine at the CND in March 2015
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
The Long March of Ayahuasca; From the Amazon basin to UNGASS 2016
Notes on the World Ayahuasca Conference 2014 Constanza Sanchez Aviles, GDPO Research Associate & Law, Policy & Human Rights Coordinator at ICEERS Foundation The World Ayahuasca Conference (AYA2014), held in Ibiza on September 25th-27th and organized by the ICEERS Foundation gathered more than six hundred professionals and non-professionals with an interest in this psychoactive Amazonian…Continue Reading The Long March of Ayahuasca; From the Amazon basin to UNGASS 2016
SPP Prof. Julia Buxton Highlights the Great Disconnect Between Drugs and Development
This post was originally published here by the School of Public Policy at the Central European University. Julia Buxton, Professor of Comparative Politics at the School of Public Policy (SPP), outlined key conclusions from her forthcoming report on the relationship between drugs and development in a stimulating faculty research presentation on Thursday, October 16. “Drugs are…Continue Reading SPP Prof. Julia Buxton Highlights the Great Disconnect Between Drugs and Development
Pushing Treaty Limits?
By Wells Bennett This post was originally published here. Suppose the United States government helps to negotiate, and subsequently champions, certain framework treaties–ones justly viewed as imposing significant constraints on all signatories. Down the road, the United States occasionally even calls out counterparties for their looser policy innovations, when the latter push the outer boundaries of what’s…Continue Reading Pushing Treaty Limits?
Need Versus Greed: the Complex Nature of Opium Farming in the North East of India
This blog was written by Romesh Bhattacharji, former Narcotics Commissioner of India, founding member of the Institute of Narcotics Studies and Analysis (INSA) and GDPO Technical Advisor During the shooting of the film Raw Opium in March 2009 I was interviewed in a poor man’s steep and low yielding opium field in Kadong village of Anjaw…Continue Reading Need Versus Greed: the Complex Nature of Opium Farming in the North East of India
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
‘The Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Global to local’
On Wednesday 19th February GDPO hosted a film screening of ‘Raw Opium: Pain, Pleasure, Profits’ followed by a panel discussion ‘The Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Global to local’. The film itself follows the trade in opium/heroin from a poppy growing region of India, over the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border and on to Vancouver’s supervised injection site –…Continue Reading ‘The Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Global to local’
RAND Europe Report on ‘Multinational overview of cannabis production regimes’
In July 2013 the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Netherlands Ministry of Security and Justice asked RAND Europe to provide a multinational overview of cannabis production regimes. The result of this research was a report that summarises differing cannabis production regimes across the world. It also analyses official statements and/or legal decisions made…Continue Reading RAND Europe Report on ‘Multinational overview of cannabis production regimes’