Drug Policy Briefing

July 2009

In the Kokang and Wa regions in northern Burma opium bans have ended poppy cultivation, but have caused chronic poverty and food insecurity as a result.

Drug Policy Briefing 29

Crops for illicit use and ecocide

December 2008

Germán Andrés Quimbayo Ruiz

A comparative reflection on the impact of illicit crops, drug control policy and other sectors of the economy on ecosystems and the environment in Colombia

Drug Policy Briefing 28

Crop spraying

December 2007

Drugs and Democracy

The United States is putting strong pressure on the Afghan government to officially adopt the strategy of eradicating the opium poppy through aerial spraying of the crops with the herbicide glyphosate.

Drug Policy Briefing 25

Missing Targets

September 2007

Drugs and Democracy

Despite efforts by the Afghan government and the international community to reduce poppy cultivation, opium production in Afghanistan has once again reached record levels in 2007.

Drug Policy Briefing No 24

Coca, Petroleum and Conflict in Cofán Territory

September 2007

Moritz Tenthoff

Under the guise of the war on drugs and terror, the way is being cleared for major economic interests in the Lower Putumayo (Colombia). This paper examines the impact of coca cultivation, petroleum activity and the armed conflict on the ancestral territory of the Cofán community.

Drug Policy Briefing 23

Colombia coca cultivation survey results

June 2007

Drugs and Democracy

Despite 2006 witnessing the most intensive use of fumigation in the country’s history, some 157,200 hectares of cultivation areas were detected, 13,200 hectares more than in 2005. Is the fumigation strategy failing?

Drug Policy Briefing 22

The politicisation of fumigations

February 2007

Drugs and Democracy

The insistence on fumigation, despite its undeniable failure in practice, is a sign that fumigation involves interests that go beyond antinarcotics and represent what are essentially political interests, to justify the US military and law enforcement presence in such a sensitive region.

Drug Policy Briefing 20

The Sierra de la Macarena

September 2006

Drugs and Democracy

Re-establishing fumigation is not going to legitimise or win acceptance of the State's activities in the territory of the Park. It is not going to protect the Park from the environmental deterioration generated by the critical interventions of social and military actors in the war. It is also...

Drug Policy Briefing 19

HIV/AIDS and Drug Use in Burma/Myanmar

May 2006

Drugs and Democracy

Burma Centrum Nederland

The increasing number of injecting drug users (IDUs) and the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Burma presents one of the most serious health threats to the population in the country, and also to the region at large. Infection rates among IDUs in Burma are among the highest in the world. The...

Drug Policy Briefing 17

Political Challenges Posed by the Failure of Prohibition

May 2006

Ricardo Vargas

After a slight dip in coca production during 2003 and 2004, the Andean region has returned to the historical average of 200,000 hectares of coca crops.

Drug Policy Briefing 16