TalkingDrugs | Drug Information, Issues, Stories & News

“Matter of Life or Death”: The Public Health Costs of Disrupting US Aid in Africa

On 20 January, American President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating a 90 day freeze and review of all U.S foreign development assistance programmes, including the U.S. Agency for…

Armand Nsababaganwa

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Apr 30, 2025

Drug Policy Drug Trafficking Opioids

How Patients Became Collateral Damage in Mexico’s War on Fentanyl

The current fentanyl crisis in the United States has had various and powerful consequences for Mexico. In the past month, President Trump has threatened to impose additional tariffs on Mexican…

Javier Trevino Rangel

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Apr 30, 2025

Downtown eastside of Vancouver in British Columbia, an area of the Canadian city highly impacted by decriminalisation.

Drug Policy

“Starting to Brew”: How Decriminalisation Impacts People Using Drugs in Canada

Stigma is a common experience in the lives of people who use drugs. It affects how they are treated by others, how they access healthcare and other supports, and even…

Farihah Ali

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Apr 29, 2025

Latest Stories

Drug Trafficking Drugs & Development

Noboa’s Re-Election Means No End To Ecuador’s Drug War

Narcosis

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Apr 29, 2025

A 16-year-old boy, alongside his 17-year-old accomplice, sped down the streets in Jipijapa, southern Ecuador, leaving behind a brutal crime…

Drug Policy Drug Trafficking

Punjab Needs Healing: Drug Policy Struggles in India

Kawal Deep Kour

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Apr 28, 2025

The harms of the Indian drug war are particularly harsh in Punjab, the western state bordering Pakistan, as state authorities…

Drug Harm Reduction Drug Policy Drugs & Development

European Harm Reduction Is Facing a Funding Crisis

Noor Vissram

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Apr 22, 2025

Harm reduction has long been a cornerstone of European public health, minimising drug use risks like overdose deaths or preventing…

Drug Policy

Australian Government Dismisses Decriminalisation Despite Widespread Support

Ryan Hesketh

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Apr 14, 2025

Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) government found “substantial support” for a public health model featuring illicit drug decriminalisation, but steered…

Language matters.

The words we use to describe drugs and the people that take them has a real and deep impact. From stigmatising labels, to being accused of murdering someone,

This month, we’re bringing together our stories that focus on on how language can shape our lives and futures.

View All Posts

Drug Policy Psychedelics

Counting Down: PsychedeliCare Launches Citizen’s Campaign for Psychedelic Therapy

Ryan Hesketh

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Mar 21, 2025

12 months, three proposals, one million signatures. That’s the target so that this time next year, the European Commission may…

Drugs & Gender

Latest Report Highlights Small Drop in World Female Imprisonments

André Gomes

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Feb 26, 2025

A new report by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck University revealed that over 733,000 women…

Other Drugs Psychedelics

“Magic Mushroom” Vapes: A Capitalist Fad of the Psychedelic Renaissance

Dennis Walker

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Feb 19, 2025

The ‘shroom boom’ has yielded the global market all manner of ways to consume the enigmatic and ancient ‘magic mushroom’.…

Drug Trafficking Stimulants

After Assad; What Next for Syria’s Captagon?

Narcosis

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Jan 14, 2025

As Bashar al-Assad flees for Russia, Syrian rebel groups – primarily the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – have…

Drug Policy

COP16: How The Global Drug War Drives Harms for Indigenous Peoples and the Environment

Paula Graciela

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Dec 18, 2024

This October was the Conference of the Parties (COP) 16 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia,…

Resources

Drug Harm Reduction Other Drugs

Alpha-PVP: What Is It, and Key Harm Reduction Tips

Noor Vissram

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Oct 23, 2024

Alpha-PyrrolidinoValeroPhenone (also known as alpha-PVP) is a relatively recent New Psychoactive Substance (NPS) in global circulation. While previously prominent in…

Drugs & Gender Psychedelics

We Need More Research into Ketamine Use By Women and Gender-Diverse People

Isabelle Gius

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Oct 21, 2024

On 20 June, in honour of World Psychedelics Day, the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and TalkingDrugs published…

Drug Policy Drug Trafficking Drugs & Development

How to Regulate Drugs in the EECA Region, According to Civil Society

André Gomes

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Aug 29, 2024

While the current international drug control conventions establish a global consensus, alternatives are increasingly being adopted: there is decriminalisation in…