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Articles on Drug policy

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A store selling psychedelics in Windsor, Ont. Recent police raids on psychedelics stores in Vancouver reflect misplaced attitudes toward drug regulation. (Shutterstock)

Raids on magic mushroom dispensaries are a knee-jerk reaction, but taking a blind-eye approach only allows the market to run wild

Psychedelics are an opportunity to do better than our past drug control strategies. Adults should be trusted to make the right decisions, but policymakers should ensure they do so fully informed.
People march to remember those who died during the drug poisoning crisis on International Overdose Awareness Day, in Vancouver, on Aug. 31, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Decriminalization: How police drug seizure, even without arrest, can create harms

A police policy of not making arrests for simple possession is a way to essentially decriminalize personal drug use. However, confiscating drugs — even without arrests — can be harmful in many ways.
Resistance to policies like safe supply still create barriers for vulnerable people, despite evidence that harm reduction saves lives. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Let evidence, not opinion, guide harm reduction policy and practice in Canada’s drug poisoning crisis

Harm reduction is grounded in evidence. But policies, stigma and ignorance about substance use still create barriers in battling Canada’s drug poisoning crisis.
B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson holds a copy of exemption documents that enable British Columbia to decriminalize possession of small amounts of ‘hard’ drugs for personal use. B.C.’s bold experiment will be closely watched as a comparator with other progressive jurisdictions. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Decriminalizing hard drugs in B.C. follows decades of public health advocacy

British Columbia’s bold experiment provides an opportunity to implement more balance in Canadian drug policy, and a more principled withdrawal from the war on drugs.
During the pandemic Americans turned to CBD, which purports to have calming effects. Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

CBD, marijuana and hemp: What is the difference among these cannabis products, and which are legal?

Hemp, CBD and marijuana are all forms of cannabis – but they are different in significant ways, from form and legality to their potential uses as treatment for various health conditions.
According to Oregon law, possessing a small amount of drugs for personal consumption is now a civil – rather than criminal – offense. Peter Dazeley via Getty

Oregon just decriminalized all drugs – here’s why voters passed this groundbreaking reform

Possessing heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. The idea is to get people with problem drug use help, not punishment.
More than 35,000 people were killed in Mexico in 2019, the deadliest year on record. Violence has spiked as a result of the government’s ongoing assault on drug cartels. Leonardo Emiliozzi Ph / Shutterstock

Inside Mexico’s war on drugs: Conversations with ‘el narco’

A researcher who fled crime-beset Mexico returns to interview the drug cartels behind so much of the violence, asking 33 ‘narcos’ everything about their lives, from birth to their latest murder.

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