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United Nations

Afghan Opium Crop May Rise After "Cash Bonanza"

Opium prices in Afghanistan more than doubled last year after disease cut production in half, the United Nations said, creating a "cash bonanza" for many farmers that could drive up cultivation of the drug in 2011.

Bolivia Presents Coca Leaf Soda. The U.S. Objects

The United States is urging all countries to file formal objections to Bolivia’s announcement that it had developed a coca leaf soft drink. Bolivia, like neighboring Peru, permits limited cultivation of coca for legal use in cooking, folk medicine and Andean religious rites. Unadulterated coca is a mild stimulant that counteracts the effects of altitude sickness and suppresses hunger pangs.

Bolivian coca leaf chewer (image courtesy of the author)
Bolivian coca leaf chewer (image courtesy of the author)

US Says No to Lifting UN Coca Leaf Ban

Bolivia wants to undo a treaty clause that has outlawed the traditional practice of coca chewing for the last 50 years, but the US and others stand ready to block that effort.

UN Drug Czar: "Drug Use Is a Health Problem, Not a Crime"

On his first visit to Afghanistan since assuming duties as UNODC Executive Director in September, Mr. Yury Fedotov visited Jangalak Treatment Center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week. The center offers treatment and follow up care for recovering drug users. "Drug use is a health problem, not a crime", said Mr. Fedotov. "Drug users are affected by a disease - addiction - and instead of punishment, what they need is treatment, care and social integration. They should not be stigmatized, repressed or further marginalized. Like all people, they deserve to be treated humanely. I believe in placing a strong emphasis on safeguarding health, human rights and justice", he added.
Yuri Fedotov (courtesy Voice of Russia, ruvr.ru)
Yuri Fedotov (courtesy Voice of Russia, ruvr.ru)

Russian Diplomat Takes Over at UN Drug Agency

It's the changing of the guard at the UNODC. As of Monday, a veteran Russian diplomat now runs one of the backbones of the global drug prohibition regime.

New UN Drug Czar From Russia Takes Office

Yury Fedotov, a veteran diplomat who until recently was the Kremlin's top envoy to Britain, replaced Italy's Antonio Maria Costa as the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
bill-clinton-vienna.jpg
bill-clinton-vienna.jpg

Bill Clinton Calls for Harm Reduction

Three new videos from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, filmed at the Vienna AIDS 2010 conference this month. In one of them, former US President Bill Clinton calls for harm reduction, an approach to substance misuse and other social issues of which the most well-known example is needle exchange programs.

Sign the Vienna Declaration

The Vienna Declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. We are inviting scientists, health practitioners and the public to endorse this document in order to bring these issues to the attention of governments and international agencies, and to illustrate that drug policy reform is a matter of urgent international significance. We also welcome organizational endorsements. To sign, see http://www.viennadeclaration.com/.