Péter Sárosi is the Executive Director of the Rights Reporter Foundation. He is a human rights activist and drug policy expert, the founder and editor of the Drugreporter website since 2004, the author of countless articles, co-author of books and director of films about harm reduction and drug policy reform. He was the Director of the Drug Policy Program at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union between 2004 and 2015. He is experienced in working at international drug policy forums such as the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. He was twice elected to the Core Group of the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs. He is the co-chair of the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network. He has been representing the Hungarian Harm Reduction Network at the government’s drug advisory body in Hungary since 2007. Peter also contributed to building a network of advocacy NGOs in Europe: the European Drug Policy Initiative. He provided technical assistance to several NGOs, and launched several campaigns on drug policy reform. As a member of the Drugreporter video advocacy team, he has produced videos about drug policy issues in a number of countries. These videos are now part of a unique online drug policy video library.
I entered a residential therapeutic community in Greece expecting care, understanding and a way out of addiction. What I encountered was a culture in which humiliation, confrontation and submission could be presented as treatment. Years later, working in harm reduction and drug policy, I encountered the same institution again — this time as one of the most powerful voices shaping how Greece understood addiction and recovery. A guest article by Marios Atzemis, a leading Greek HIV activist and harm reduction expert.
During this year’s Pride Month, I was struck by how often anti-LGBTQ rhetoric echoed arguments that will sound familiar to anyone who has followed debates about drugs and drug policy. Although same-sex relationships and drug use are fundamentally different phenomena, the narratives used to stigmatize them frequently rely on remarkably similar rhetorical patterns.
A public clash between a senior police official and one of the Czech Republic’s leading addiction researchers has exposed a deeper struggle over the future of a drug policy model long regarded as one of Europe’s most successful.
After decades of seizures, arrests and increasingly sophisticated law enforcement operations, Europe’s drug market is larger, more diverse and more adaptable than ever. The European Drug Report 2026 reveals a paradox at the heart of contemporary drug policy: while the evidence increasingly supports public health and harm reduction, political attention continues to gravitate towards tougher enforcement and security measures.
The Czech government is reportedly dismissing National Drug Coordinator Pavel Bém and dismantling the country’s internationally respected evidence-based drug policy model in a move experts warn could shift policy toward a more punitive and ideological direction.
The meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs held in Vienna this spring showed how international drug policy is moving slowly. That is why every entry on harm reduction, human rights and public health is politically significant – a guest article by Aleksi Hupli, a Finnish researcher, first published in Finnish by A-Clinic Foundation.
Civil society and drug user activists push harm reduction reforms across the Nordic region – please watch the videos from a side event at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and learn more about drug policy reform in Scandinavia!
After 36 years of pioneering work in the field of harm reduction, Mainline, a leading Dutch harm reduction organisation, has to close due to budget constraints. We interviewed its executive director, Ancella Voets, on this occasion.
On February 28, thousands of people gathered in Budapest and three other Hungarian cities for an unusual form of protest: a peaceful demonstration expressed through electronic music and collective dancing against the increasingly harsh war on drugs.
