Summer came to Kherson, with thick morning mists and frog concerts at night. Sweet cherries, juicy apples, and all of the many things that the soil generously provides began to appear. And with them came blackouts and mobile phone disconnection.

Michal Matczak (or as he is known among his fans: Mata) is a Polish rapper and activist who launched a campaign for decriminalisation in his country. We interviewed him in Vienna at the 66th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, where he came to share his story and promote decriminalisation.

Jamie Bridge is a Bedford-based harm reduction professional and the Chief Operating Officer at the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC). We interviewed him on the occasion of the end of his term as the chair of the Vienna NGO Committee – an organisation that links NGOs and the Vienna-based agencies involved in setting drug policy.

Drugreporter recorded six side events, organised by NGOs at the 66th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, between 13-17 March, 2023. The issues addressed are implementing a human rights approach in drug policy, the nordic drug policy reform, Ukraine’s harm reduction measures during Russian invasion, environmental impacts of the war on drugs and more.

Imagine for a moment that you have been deprived of the ability to do the usual routine things; to leave the house whenever you like, to walk wherever you like, to go to the cinema, museums, or the theatre, to drink coffee with friends at the corner café, to buy something at the shop, to go to a neighbouring town or to another country. When – in one moment – you find yourself under occupation, you lose everything that your life consisted of.

We found out about the war on the morning of 24 February. All the news channels were screaming about it. We were literally crushed by the news: missile attacks on Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk… At the same time gigantic military columns were heading towards Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odessa…

The Drugreporter team attended this year’s 66th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the largest annual global meeting on drug policies. This is a preliminary written report with some personal impressions – the videos are coming soon. The article has French and Russian translation!    

“The essence of the cannabis social club model is sharing,” explained a cannabis activist to a group of international professionals, who came to Barcelona to study the pioneering cannabis policies of Catalonia.

A new law, that came into effect in December, criminalised “illegal rave parties” in Italy. We interviewed Susanna Ronconi from Forum Droghe, an organisation that opposes the law on human rights and public health grounds.

In this short film we summarise what the community of people who use drugs in Portugal acknowledges about the famous drug policy model of Portugal, but also what they would like to see improved.