Criminalising people who use drugs doesn’t work, and it harms our society. We congratulate the UN drug agency for having prepared a paper which supports decriminalisation – and we encourage the agency to endorse their own report. Watch our video, to find out more about how the UN paper on decriminalisation was suppressed, and how it was received at the international harm reduction conference!

The Drugreporter video team attended and filmed the International Harm Reduction Conference to learn about the new trends in harm reduction. Please watch our short video and read our article highlighting these trends!

Our new movie provides an insight into the state of harm reduction in Eastern Europe: A struggle for survival in a time of economic austerity.

45 professionals representing civil society organisations working in the drug field gathered in Brussels to prepare advice for the European Commission and member states.

Next year the General Assembly of the United Nations will put global drug policies on its agenda. Some people think this signals the dawn of a new era, a Spring of drug policy reform. I am more skeptical. In the global drug war, the end of winter is not as close as some have suggested. However, there are many advocacy opportunities NGOs should not miss.

"Legal highs: could this be the end of the road?" – asks Joe Shuts in his article, published in The Telegraph. He refers to the new blanket ban the UK government has recently introduced to stop the flood of so-called legal highs, new psychoactive substances which have been spreading all over Europe since 2009. Should other governments follow the British example and adopt similar bans? The answer has to be a resounding "No". 

This March, our video advocacy team attended the 58th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the largest drug policy gathering in the world, to find out how governments and NGOs feel about the prospects of drug policy reform. We produced a series of short thematic videos, to give you an overview of the current state of political debate on the burning issues of international drug control.

In its annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board scolds the US and Uruguay for reforming cannabis laws. At the same time, it fails to criticise Russia for blocking opiate substitution treatment in occupied Ukrainian territories, thereby endangering the lives of hundreds of people who use drugs. In our open letter, we ask the president of the INCB to act in order to protect the core principle of the international drug conventions: public health.

Films about drug policy reform from New Zealand to Europe, video advocacy trainings, conferences, reports and campaigns about harm reduction, consultation with decision makers at the national and European level – the Drugreporter Team had a very active year in 2014. Please read & download our colorful 2014 Annual Report and learn more!

HCLU's European Drug Policy Initiative this year took the form of grant-aiding a group of European journalists to cover on location the high-level meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna.