As Mexico elects its new president, gang violence continues to sprawl.
Premier David Eby, joined by Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, announce that the B.C. government is banning the use of hard drugs in public places, part of the province’s ongoing decriminalization pilot project, at a press conference in Victoria on Oct. 5, 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
Decriminalizing drugs is not intended as a solution to drug problems. Rather, it is a critical first step that’s necessary, but not sufficient, for replacing prohibition with a public health approach.
Mexican police at the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where scores of people died in a prison fire and riot in 2016.
Miguel Sierra / EPA
The raid almost certainly broke international law, but Ecuador’s president is hoping his strongman tactics will resonate with the electorate.
Men who were detained under the state of emergency are transported in a cargo truck in Soyapango, El Salvador in October 2022 after President Nayib Bukele began a crackdown on gangs that suspended constitutional rights and threw one in every 100 people in jail.
(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Colombia’s current president, Gustavo Petro, is pushing for a new global approach to drug addiction and use.
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)
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
Khalid Tinasti, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID) and Yong-an Zhang, Shanghai University
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.
Mexican soldiers stand guard near during the arrest of Joaquin Ovidio Guzman in Culiacan, Mexico, in January 2023.
Juan Carlos Cruz/AFP via Getty Images
A 1971 law, and the parallel growth of an illegal economy, shaped South Africa’s unique cannabis landscape.
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
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.
Minneapolis police force entry moments before shooting Amir Locke.
Minneapolis Police Department via AP
Formerly incarcerated Americans face food insecurity rates double that of the general population. A 1996 law that prohibits drug felons from getting crucial benefits may be partially to blame.
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
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
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
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.