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Mexico’s militarized war on drugs – and, often, drug users – has killed at least 150,000 people over the past 15 years. Jair Cabrera Torres/picture alliance via Getty Images

Mexico moves to legalize cannabis use, a modest step toward de-escalating drug war

Mexico would not fully legalize cannabis; its new regulation plan makes recreational use legal. However modest, that would be a symbolic milestone for a country immersed in a long, deadly drug war.
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.
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador with the families of the 43 students who went missing in 2014 in Guerrero state. He has ordered a truth commission to investigate the unsolved disappearance. Reuters/Edgard Garrido

Mexico is bleeding. Can its new president stop the violence?

President López Obrador campaigned on some outside-the-box ideas to ‘pacify’ Mexico after 12 years of extreme violence. But so far his government has emphasized traditional law-and-order policies.
Kids teething? Back in 1885, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, containing morphine, was close at hand and earned the nickname the “baby killer.” Concerns about the dangers of readily available medications played a big role in how Canada’s drug laws evolved. The U.S. National Library of Medicine

The influence of opium and cocaine panic in Canadian drug policy

Canadian drug policy began to take shape well before anti-immigration attacks on Chinese establishments in 1908. Drugs like opium and coke were causing grave public health concerns.
Fighting drug cartels and counterinsurgencies to get US aid has been a deadly job for Colombia’s military. Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters

Is the US really ready to end its drug war?

Will America end its aggressive counter-narcotics strategy, which has battered Latin America for four decades?

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