Resource Library
A Summary of the Health Harms of Drugs
A Department of Health report offering a brief coverage of the health-related harms and effects of drugs most popularly used in the UK. Based upon recent scientific research and focused largely on the cost to the individual, this article considers a wide range of licit and illicit drugs.
A Summary of the Health Harms of Drugs
A Department of Health report offering a brief coverage of the health-related harms and effects of drugs most popularly used in the UK. Based upon recent scientific research and focused largely on the cost to the individual, this article considers a wide range of licit and illicit drugs.
Time to be smart on drug war
An article on mysanantonio.com that highlights the costs of the drug war and argues for a new approach to drugs which emphasises prevention and treatment rather than enforcement.
War of the Drug Lords
The author focuses on the violence inherent in the war on drugs particularly in Mexico, and highlights the ineffectiveness of current US drug policy in stopping the flow of drugs.
US can't justify its drug war spending, reports say
A Los Angeles Times article covering two 2011 reports which criticise the American government's growing use of US contractors such as DynCorp and Lockheed Martin in fighting the drug war. These contractors were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate fields of coca, operate surveillance equipment and otherwise battle the widening drug trade in Latin America over the last five years. US politicians and academics have attacked this policy, saying it is incredibly wasteful and ineffective.
New information about counternarcotics contracts in Latin America
A US Senate Subcommittee report, commissioned by Senator Claire McCaskill, which examines State Department and Defense Department spending on contracts to supply counternarcotics assistance to governments in Latin America. The report's analysis finds that from 2005 to 2009, the federal government’s annual spending on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America rose by 32%, from $482 million in 2005 to $635.8 million in 2009; and that, in total, the US government spent more than $3.1 billion on counternarcotics contracts during this period, despite not having any uniform systems in place to track or evaluate whether these contracts are achieving their goals.
Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
A landmark report, by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which urges an end to the war on drugs and calls for a major paradigm shift in global drug policy.
Drug Policy in Portugal: The Benefits of Decriminalizing Drug Use
An Open Society Foundations report that highlights some of the positive effects of Portugal's decision to decriminalise drug possession in 2001.
In Breach of International Law: Ukranian Drug Legislation and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
A report by the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network that challenges the legality of a 2010 Ukrainian Ministry of Health Resolution which significantly reduced the legal threshold for "small", "large" and "extra large" quantities of certain types of illegal drugs, including those most commonly used by people in Ukraine.
Aram Barra – Counting the costs of Mexico's 'war on drugs'
Speaking at the launch of the Count the Costs campaign, Aram Barra, Drug Policy Programme Director at Espolea, discusses the costs of the drug war in Mexico.