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.

Hungary violated the rules when it voted against the EU joint position on medical cannabis at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs last year.

On February 10 the deputies of the Russian parliament adopted, in the third and final reading, a bill to increase the sentence for “inciting use of drugs” on the Internet to 15 years.

his is the first episode of Drugreporter News, our monthly news update from the world of drug policy, with Orsolya Fehér.

Recent large drug seizures and arrests don’t show that so-called drug supply reduction works. The system is broken but we don’t dare to ask the right questions. 

In Italy, the documentary film on the San Patrignano community has started a wide debate on drugs. Please read the passionate article of Susanna Ronconi (Forum Droghe) on the culture of silence and lies that contributed to the torture and abuse of people who use drugs!

Sanpa, a new miniseries now featured on Netflix, tells the story about how a man’s dream of saving people from addiction turned into a nightmare.