In this report, the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs will provide you with guidelines on how to make the involvement of civil society in drug policy more meaningful.

The Maltese government launched a public consultation on a White Paper, proposing the full decriminalisation of the possession of up to 7 grams of cannabis. In this episode of Drugreporter Café, we discuss the chances of cannabis reform with Cyrus Engerer, a Member of the European Parliament, a politican representing the Maltese Labour Party, and Andrew Bonello, the president of ReLeaf, a cannabis reform NGO from the island.

What drugs people use in the remote island of Iceland? Is the Icelandic prevention model really a miracle? Why decision makers decided to introduce a drug consumption room and decriminalise drug use? Learn it from this episode of Drugreporter Café!

While the Czech parliament discusses the amendment to the Criminal Code that would effectively decriminalise drug use, the Constitutional Court has repealed part of the law concerning small amounts of cannabis and ‘magic’ mushrooms.

At this side event at the 64th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) international experts discussed the human rights impact of drug policies in Europe – watch the video recordings!

The Colombian government announced that it will restart is controversial aerial fumigation program to eradicate coca fields. But does it provide any alternative livelihood to coca farmers? Did it fulfil its promises to support poor rural communities? And what do we know about the risks of forced eradication on public health and the environment? Watch this next episode of Drugreporter Café learn the answers to these questions from our two guests, Isabel Pereira (Dejusticia) and Elizabeth Dickinson (International Crisis Group).

What can we learn from the failures of repressive drug laws? How can we convince the people that they are failed? What are the alternatives of punitive drug policies? A group of NGOs launched a campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act in the UK – and the 100th anniversary of the drug law in Belgium. We discuss lessons learnt with Ester Kincova from Transform and Stéphane Leclercq from Fedito Brussels.

The Mayor of Amsterdam is planning to ban tourists from buying cannabis in local coffee shops to reduce “over-tourism”. But are cannabis users the real problem? Is a ban effective to stop street nuisance? We discuss these issues with Joachim Helms, a coffee shop owner and cannabis activists, who has alternative ideas about how to improve public health and safety in Amsterdam.

A citizens’ initiative in Finland aiming to decriminalise cannabis gathered the required 50,000 signatures at the end of 2019. Read this article by a Finnish activist, Aleksi Hupli!

The Norwegian government presented its plan to decriminalise drug use last week – read this report from Arild Knutsen, a leading drug user activist.