By Ellie Harding, MA candidate in Applied Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University ‘We are cutting the head off the snake and taking down the kingpins behind these deadly supply lines…Drug abuse and addiction ruins communities, devastates lives and tears families apart.’ So announced Priti Patel in her speech to the annual Conservative Party conference…Continue Reading “The disposable foot soldiers of crime” – Media, County Lines and Moral Panics
Proposing a Harm Reduction Framework for Youth Drug Use in Nigeria: A Research Inspired Commentary
Temitope Salami Drugs is a hotly debated subject that attracts the attention of policymakers, especially regarding the perceived effects drug use has on society. But, following scientific research and targeted campaigns, it is apparent that the ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric has lost its gloss and public health alternatives are increasingly embraced over criminal justice measures….Continue Reading Proposing a Harm Reduction Framework for Youth Drug Use in Nigeria: A Research Inspired Commentary
‘Drug Smuggler Nation: Narcotics and the Netherlands, 1920-1995.’ By Stephen Snelders
A review by Christopher Hallam Despite its reputation as a centre of illicit drug trafficking and the oft-times bane of the international drug control regime, relatively little has been written by academics on the historical background of that ‘Drug Smuggler Nation’, the Netherlands. Stephen Snelders sets out to address this lacuna, exploring trafficking in the…Continue Reading ‘Drug Smuggler Nation: Narcotics and the Netherlands, 1920-1995.’ By Stephen Snelders
Cultivating Change: The Contemporary Challenges of Studying Cannabis Regulation in Jamaica
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?
Nowhere to hide: It’s high time we measured countries’ performance in drug policy
By Marie Nougier IDPC Head of Research and Communications & Dave Bewley-Taylor, GDPO Director First published here by IPDC, October 2019 Traditionally, the UN and governments have measured progress in drug policy in terms of flows and scale; principally the numbers of people arrested, hectares of drug crops eradicated and the amounts of drugs seized. For years now, IDPC and…Continue Reading Nowhere to hide: It’s high time we measured countries’ performance in drug policy
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 Tunisia and Mauritania
View from the Ground – Harm reduction, drug policy and the law in the Maghreb: focus on Tunisia and Mauritania Khalid Tinasti Honorary Research Associate, Swansea University July 2017 Introduction: The Maghreb countries – Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia – while seldom discussed, are crucial to global debates on drug control policies. These countries…Continue Reading View from the Ground – Harm reduction, drug policy and the law in the Maghreb: focus on Tunisia and Mauritania
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