Watch this new video series on how the opioid overdose crisis and Canada’s toxic drug supply impact people in the trades and construction sectors. A guest article by the co-producer of the films, Lorna Thomas, from Moms Stop the Harm.

We interviewed the renowned psychiatrist, Peter Gasser, who conducted the first clinical study on the therapeutic use of LSD after research on psychedelics was outlawed in the 1960s.

Prior to the Africa Policy Week in Cape Town, South Africa; IDPC, SANPUD and Drugreporter organised Video and Media Advocacy Training in the city.

Are you a drug policy reformer and harm reduction activist in Africa, who wants to make videos for change and learn to communicate with the media better? Would you like to take part at the Africa Drug Policy Week as well? This application is for you then! Apply now to take part in a 5-day Video and Media Training (9-13 August), and then use your newly acquired skills during the additional 3 days of the Africa Drug Policy Week (15-17 August) – all in Cape Town, South Africa.

This is the story of Natasha Kaluzhskaya, a patient in an opioid substitution programme in Mariupol, Ukraine. Mariupol was completely destroyed by the Russian army in 2022. Under the bombs, Natasha rescued people who were using drugs. She managed to survive. And today she stands as a witness to the crimes of war in Ukraine.

We wanted to remember it, to make sure it would never be forgotten. On 29 August, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an operation to liberate the right bank of Kherson Oblast. And despite the regime of silence imposed by the General Staff, despite the disgusting communications, good news reached us from time to time.

Summer came to Kherson, with thick morning mists and frog concerts at night. Sweet cherries, juicy apples, and all of the many things that the soil generously provides began to appear. And with them came blackouts and mobile phone disconnection.

Time passed. The occupation continued. As spring came, the situation in the city hardened. The Russians began to behave more brazenly and defiantly, and gradually life turned into a chronicle of violence and crime. 

Imagine for a moment that you have been deprived of the ability to do the usual routine things; to leave the house whenever you like, to walk wherever you like, to go to the cinema, museums, or the theatre, to drink coffee with friends at the corner café, to buy something at the shop, to go to a neighbouring town or to another country. When – in one moment – you find yourself under occupation, you lose everything that your life consisted of.

We found out about the war on the morning of 24 February. All the news channels were screaming about it. We were literally crushed by the news: missile attacks on Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk… At the same time gigantic military columns were heading towards Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odessa…