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Articles on War on Drugs

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Psychologist and professor Monnica Williams, on the left with a patient, is advocating for psychedelics in therapy to heal racial trauma. Right: Psilocybin mushrooms sit on a drying rack in the Uptown Fungus lab in Springfield, Ore. (Left: Monnica Williams | Right: AP/Craig Mitchelldyer)

The potential of psychedelics to heal our racial traumas

Clinical psychologist and professor Monnica Williams is on a mission to bring psychedelics to therapists’ offices to help people heal from their racial traumas. To do this, she’s jumping over some big hurdles.
In 2014, US Coast Guard vessels seized four tons of cocaine and other drugs in what was then considered a “big” bust. Seizures have continued to climb, only to be outstripped by production. Connie Terrell/US Coast Guard

International drug policy: at a crossroads or a dead-end?

Drug seizures are on the rise, but so too are production, consumption, trafficking and violence. The current drug control regime is showing its limits, yet the changes needed require consensus.
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.
Death in Rio: security forces patrol the Jacarezinho favela the day after 25 people were killed in a drugs operation on May 6 2021. EPA-EFE/Andre Coelho

Drugs ‘trilemma’: how to halt the deadly trade while still ensuring development and peace

Attempts to wage war on drugs in developing countries which don’t take into account the needs of local people are doomed to fail. Here’s why.
Activists wave flags in front of the U.S. Capitol to demand that Congress pass cannabis reform legislation on Oct. 8, 2019. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Legalizing marijuana, once a pipe dream on Capitol Hill, takes an important step forward

A cannabis decriminalization bill approved by the House is a sign from Congress that sentiment around the drug is evolving, but it misses a chance to regulate marijuana for the good of all Americans.
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.
A T-shirt worn by a cannabis advocate during a court hearing on the legality of the plant in South Africa. RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images

What history teaches us about shaping South Africa’s new cannabis laws

Policy makers need to protect and promote the interests of people whose indigenous knowledge and toil developed a thriving national cannabis economy - in the face of harsh police crackdowns.
In this July 2020 photo, a woman is comforted in her home during a wake for her son who was killed along with at least 26 others in an attack by drug cartels on a drug rehabilitation centre where he was being treated in Irapuato, Mexico. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Trump and Biden ignore how the war on drugs fuels violence in Latin America

The American public should understand that the United States has played a critical role in creating and fuelling violence in Latin America via its unsuccessful war on drugs.

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