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Publications by Drugs and Democracy

  • Towards revision of the UN drug control conventions
    March 2012
    Dave Bewley-Taylor

    Recent years have seen a growing unwillingness among increasing numbers of States parties to fully adhere to a strictly prohibitionist reading of the three principal UN drug control conventions.

  • The Limits of Latitude
    March 2012
    Martin Jelsma
     Dave Bewley-Taylor

    A growing number of nations are developing policies that shift away from the prohibition-oriented failed approach to drugs control. Ultimately however nations will need to reform the overall UN based global drug control framework of which practically all nations are a part.

  • Financing Dispossession
    February 2012
    Tom Kramer
     Kevin Woods

    China’s opium crop substitution programme has very little to do with providing mechanisms to decrease reliance on poppy cultivation or provide alternative livelihoods for ex-poppy growers. Financing dispossession is not development.

  • Ending Burma’s Conflict Cycle?
    February 2012

    Peace does not just involve the government and ethnic armed opposition groups, but involves all of Burma's citizens.

  • Chewing over Khat prohibition
    January 2012
    Martin Jelsma
    Pien Metaal
     Axel Klein

    Khat has been consumed for thousands of years in the highlands of Eastern Africa and Southern Arabia.Strict bans on khat introduced in Europe ostensibly for the protection of immigrant communities have had severe unintended negative consequences.

  • USAID's Alternative Development policy in Colombia
    October 2011
    Ricardo Vargas

    Alternative Development as practised by USAID and the Colombia government was always guided more by security rather than development considerations. This report examines the key aspects of USAID's alternative development policy and its implementation in Colombia during the last decade. A critical analysis by Ricardo Vargas.

     

  • Cannabis Social Clubs en Espagne
    October 2011
    Martin Barriuso Alonso (FAC)

    Les Clubs Sociaux du Cannabis (CSC) sont des associations d’usagers qui s’organisent pour s’auto-approvisionner sans avoir recours au marché noir. Profitant de une zone grise juridique, il existe depuis plusieurs années, des clubs privés qui produisent du cannabis pour le distribuer, sans but lucratif et en circuit fermé, à des consommateurs adultes.

  • Amphetamine Type Stimulants and Harm Reduction
    October 2011
    Tom Blickman

    Little is known about the methamphetamine market in the region, but there are strong indications that the situation is deteriorating with substances becoming stronger, methods of use more harmful and the number of users steadily increasing. There is an urgent need for donors and governments to introduce effective harm reduction measures.

  • How to determine personal use in drug legislation
    September 2011
    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.

  • Conviction by Numbers
    September 2011
    Genevieve Harris

    The use of "threshold quantities" for determining charges for drugs offences has become a popular quick-fix by policy makers keen to save time and money, but they should be used with caution as they also carry the risk of wrongful conviction and disproportionate responses.