All you need to know about harms and harm reduction at party settings in Serbia summed up on the latest episode of Drugreporter's Drugfacts infographic.

In 1976, the Netherlands separated the cannabis market from the market in other illicit drugs, and allowed coffee shops to sell small amounts of cannabis to adults in a controlled environment. Our new movie, supplementing the report of the Open Society Foundation, tells the story of the Dutch model and highlights its successes, as well as the challenges ahead of it.

At the national harm reduction conference in Budapest,  presenters from Greece, Romania and Hungary reported that there are similar problems and challenges in relation to injecting drug use in Southern-Central Europe, but there are huge differences between government responses. Lack of political leadership is leading to growing HIV and hepatitis C infections among drug users all over the region.

Regulated medical marijuana has come out of the blue as a feasible alternative in Serbia, where overwhelming public support favours regulating hemp-based medicines. The promised draft law is still awaited, however, and will then require the approval of the national parliament.

A government politician's proposal for mandatory drug testing of teenagers has been rejected due to criticism. 

This year, the Romanian drug law was amended in the direction of decriminalisation, though the law still retains imprisonment and fines as an option, while penalties generally discriminate against the poor and socially disadvantaged.

Poland’s Constitutional Court recently concluded, in a legally binding ruling, that the county’s drug law needs to be amended. Find out why!

Watch our video interview with the man who discovered Mephedrone, the drug also known as Meow-Meow!

Check out our new infographic on Romania, where the poor health services provided for injecting drug users lead to increased shared needle use driven by new psychoactive substances. All of this has caused a surge in new HIV cases, and the revival of tuberculosis among people who use drugs.

Bulgarian society seems to be in a state of apathy when it comes to decriminalisation of drug use. Neither a so-called “reform” of the drugs law (making it harsher than ever), nor an outrageous fine for the pro-legalisation Green party, was a loud enough wake-up call for Bulgaria to distance itself from the current punishment-based approach. Read the guest article from human rights expert journalist Krassen Nikolov.