You have likely heard of a new group of synthetic substances, Nitazines, increasingly sold on illicit drug markets in North America and in Europe. We interviewed Shayla Schlossenberg, Drug Service Coordinator at Release, a UK-based drug policy and human rights NGO.

In this short film, produced at the 67th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, we give you an overview of the latest developments of drug policy reform across the globe.

At one of the most powerful side events at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs this year, policemen called out for psychedelic drugs to be used in treatment of the trauma they suffered, while fighting the futile war on drugs. Watch the video of the whole session here!

Scotland is a textbook case of how the toxic combination of growing social exclusion and poverty, the diversification of drug markets, and repressive, abstinence-only drug policies can lead to a deadly drug overdose epidemic. A new paper published by the Scottish government gives us hope that the country can now set an example to other states on how to give a compassionate and pragmatic response to the crisis.

Scotland retains the unwanted title of “Europe’s drug death capital”. How does the Scottish government tackle the problem? We interviewed Angela Constance, the former Minister for Drug Policy of Scotland, at the 63rd session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March – find the interview in both video and podcast format below!

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 second part of our series reveals how young people advocating drug policy reform cope with the new challenges and opportunities brought by the COVID-crisis.

In the final episode of our documentary series on the history of the rights movement of people who use drugs, we introduce activists from the UK and from the International Network of People Who Use Drugs.

The overdose epidemic in Scotland attracted international media attention but we know less about what is the situation in other parts of the UK. We interviewed Martin Balekbrough, the CEO of the Kaleidoscope Project from Wales.

Naomi Burke-Shyne became executive director of Harm Reduction International in September 2018 – a few months before she had to oversee the organising of the largest harm reduction conference on earth. Read our interview below!