This month, we are going to talk about the world’s most used and abused drug, alcohol. Alcohol is so much a part of life in the Western world, that people often do not even notice that it is a drug. Given that alcohol is one of the most abused drugs in the world, it is of great importance to understand how it affects the brain. In this Dose of Science we are taking a look at alcohol’s effect on monkey brains.

Medical cannabis activists formed an alliance with a political party, in order to contest the parliamentary elections in Serbia. Read Irena Molnar’s report from Belgrade, and watch the video!

A study conducted by the Portuguese harm reduction NGO, APDES, presents how stigma affects the daily lives of drug users.

After a long gestation, the UN drug reform experiment suffered a miscarriage. It seems the UN is not the catalyst of change but its mirror. Reformers can learn many lessons – but can also be proud of their achievements.

The UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) adopted the outcome document without a debate, right before the real discussion could have started.

Hundreds of drug reformers gathered at the “Drug Policy and the Politics of Race” event, organised at Columbia University on Sunday, to discuss how repressive drug policies affect the lives of communities of colour. Watch our videos!

We are glad to present the five best posters submitted to our poster contest targeting the UNGASS on drugs this year!

In this edition of Dose of Science, we are going to take a look at a meta-analysis of using LSD therapy to treat alcoholism [1]. ‘Meta-analysis’ means that the study pools together data derived from multiple trials and re-analyses the combined evidence. The advantage is that the combined evidence reduces the statistical uncertainties, and permits more robust conclusions than any of the individual studies in isolation.

Drugreporter’s video advocacy team filmed key speeches and interviewed some of the participants at the UN’s drug meeting in Vienna – please watch and share our movie!

A surprise decision from the otherwise super-conservative Polish government: it improves access to cannabis for medical purposes.