Proportionality of sentences

Studies reveal the ineffectiveness of long prison sentences for nonviolent drug law offenders. The capacity of the judicial system is stretched far beyond its limits, resulting in slow procedures, lengthy pretrial custody and overcrowded prisons. Referral schemes or specialized drug courts are introduced offering offenders a choice between prison and treatment. The main objective is crime reduction by providing nonviolent offenders the chance to escape the vicious drugs-crime-prison cycle.

Addicted to punishment

January 2013
Jorge Parra Norato, Rodrigo Uprimny & Diana Esther Guzmán

This report reveals the average maximum sentence for a drug offense rose from 34 years in prison in 1950 to 141 years today and in three countries surveyed, drug trafficking was subject to longer maximum and minimum penalties than murder.

Cannabis social club activists in Spain liberated

November 2011
Tom Blickman

Cultivation and consumption of cannabis is decriminalised to an extent but lack of guidelines causes rogue social clubs to undermine the success of self-regulated social clubs. The result; an unwarranted arrest of three Pannagh activists. 

How to determine personal use in drug legislation

August 2011
Nr. 15 - 
Grazia Zuffa

Distinguishing between drug possession for personal use and supply and trafficking is widely acknowledged as one of the most difficult and controversial issues facing drug legislators and policy makers.

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Systems Overload: Drug Laws and Prisons in Latin America

December 2010

Study reveals alarming pattern in imprisonment for drug crimes in Latin America

Drug law reform in Ecuador

May 2010
Sandra Edwards & Coletta Youngers

Across the hemisphere, frustration is grow- ing with the failure of the “war on drugs.” Many Latin American countries face rising rates of drug consumption, despite harsh drug laws that have left prisons bursting at the seams.