Drugs and Democracy Human rights, drug policy, and democratic reform

For decades, punitive drug control policies have fuelled violence, criminalisation, militarisation, and social exclusion across the world. The global “war on drugs” has disproportionately impacted peasant communities, Indigenous peoples, racialised groups, and people living in poverty, while failing to reduce drug-related harms or address the structural causes of illicit economies.

TNI’s Drugs and Democracy work promotes drug policies grounded in human rights, social justice, public health, peacebuilding, and sustainable development. Building on decades of research and collaboration with social movements, farmers’ organisations, policy makers, and civil society networks, we challenge prohibitionist approaches and support democratic alternatives to the war on drugs.