The Oregon legislature passed a bill… that reclassifies possession of several drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor, reducing the punishments and expanding access to drug treatment for people without prior felonies or convictions for drug possession. In Oregon, several law enforcement agencies worked with lawmakers to craft portions of the bill. First-time offenders caught…
“For over a hundred years, people who use drugs have been driven into the shadows, into prisons, driven out of jobs, have been driven out of families, driven out of communities,” said Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. “It’s a big hole we’ve dug for ourselves.” “There hasn’t been a human…
Civil forfeiture allows the government to deprive citizens of their property even when it doesn’t even try to prove that the citizen committed a crime. In 2014 the government took more money from citizens than burglars stole from crime victims. It’s a gigantic law-enforcement scam … and it’s a constitutional atrocity. It’s a constitutional atrocity……
In an effort to consider promising strategies that could reduce the health and societal problems associated with injection drug use, the AMA today voted to support the development of pilot facilities where people who use intravenous drugs can inject self-provided drugs under medical supervision. Studies from other countries have shown that supervised injection facilities reduce…
The road back is not an easy one, but it is clear enough. It begins by admitting that not every good idea is constitutional, nor is every bad idea unconstitutional. And while many people might well think that prohibiting drugs is a good idea, it is decidedly unconstitutional. There is no authority granted to the…
Q: How do you see the chances of drug policy reform in the global scale? Should we expect slow gradual changes or are we heading to revolutionary paradigm shift? A: Change is happening, there is no question. The speed is glacial at times: the UN sands shift slowly, and progress is continuously stifled by the…
Today, the medicalisation of hallucinogens is once again on the rise. While this is an important and vital step in creating both an atmosphere of acceptance in the public mind and their utilisation in the psychiatric sphere, it should not be seen as an end in itself. The central lesson of psychedelic literature is that,…
“There really is no danger if you do it in a regulated situation,” Tom Eckert, a licensed professional counselor and one of the leaders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society, the force behind the measure, says by phone. “You’re not going to overdose, it’s not addictive. We see a lot of excitement around the idea. This…
Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and the majority of Americans with problematic substance use start smoking, drinking or using other drugs before the age of 18. The most effective way to combat these startling statistics is to use education to inform teens of the facts surrounding…
About 250 million people [3.33% of world population] used [illegal] drugs in 2015, the report says. Of them [using], 29.5 million [only 12%] had a drug use disorder, including addiction. (these statistics based of world population of 7.5 billion) “Despite decades of global prohibition and tens of billions of dollars invested annually in anti-trafficking measures,…
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