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.
The Drugreporter video team will live-stream sessions and talkshows from the annual UN meeting on drugs in Vienna on 12-14 March. Please follow us on Facebook and tune in!
Ahead of the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotics Drugs next week, Italian NGOs have sent an open letter to the government, urging it not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to stand up for European and humane drug policies.
The Council encourages member states to divert drug using offenders from the criminal justice system and refer them to educational and/or treatment programs.
The Civil Society Forum on Drugs, an expert group of the EU Commission, is urging the Commission to provide adequate funding and staff to drug coordination and support demand and harm reduction interventions.
Iveta Chovancová is the director of Odyesus, a harm reduction NGO based in Bratislava, Slovakia. We interviewed her about trends in drug policies in her country.
The Drugreporter video team helped Coalition I Can Live, a Lithuanian drug policy reform NGO to launch a media campaign for the decriminalisation of drug use. Watch the movie we produced about drug policies in Lithuania – and read this interview with Laura Bliujiene, a lawyer working for the NGO!
We know that there are persistent myths about cannabis among opponents of reform, from the gateway drug theory to demotivational syndrome. But there are also myths among cannabis smokers.
An authoritarian government can scale up access to harm reduction and reform drug laws. But without a free and vibrant democratic society, drug policy reform cannot be truly meaningful and sustainable.
Our interview with Ina Roll Spinnangr, the director of the Association for Safer Drug Policies, the NGO that organised the first Nordic Drug Policy Reform Conference last year.
The Drugreporter video team was invited by the Drug Policy Alliance to their conference in Atlanta to produce a film about the latest developments in drug policy in the US and beyond. You can now watch our short summary movie on race and the drug war, as well as recorded key speeches and sessions!
