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About Charles Shaw

Charles Shaw is a writer and activist living in the Bay Area of San Francisco. He is the author of Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics and Spirituality, and the Director of The Exile Nation Project. Charles serves as editor for the Dictionary of Ethical Politics and the oD Drug Policy Forum.

Articles by Charles Shaw

The Exile Nation Project - Interview with Mark Kleiman, Ph.D

Charles Shaw 9 November 2011
The outspoken and controversial author, UCLA Professor and former Justice Department official gives his take on the origins of the American incarceration crisis.

A Glimpse of the World after the War on Drugs

Charles Shaw and Cara Lavan 4 October 2011

Report and videos from the recent openDemocracy symposium, "After the War on Drugs: Envisioning a Post-Prohibition World."

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of October 2nd 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 2 October 2011
Following the successful openDemocracy Conference, ‘After the War on Drugs: Envisioning a Post-Prohibition World’; the Drug Policy Forum is back with a bumper edition and round-up of the last couple of weeks drug policy news. We lead this week with news that rebuffing the Conservative government, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that Vancouver's safe injection site for heroin addicts can stay open.

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of August 21st 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 21 August 2011
This week we lead with the alarming news that Irina Teplinskaya, friend of the openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum and renowned human rights activist currently undertaking litigation against the Russian Government, has been arrested while crossing the Russian border. Our lead article is an impassioned statement by Irina ~ MW & CS

The Exile Nation Project - Interview with Julie Holland, M.D.

Charles Shaw 14 August 2011
A frank and honest conversation with one of America's leading drug policy experts and the author of the best-selling Weekends at Bellevue.

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of August 14th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 14 August 2011
With a startling 400% rise in the number of women incarcerated for federal crimes in Mexico since 2007, we lead this weeks report with an investigation into the relationship between this growth and the expansion of drug cartels and organised crime ~ MW & CS

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of August 8th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 8 August 2011
This week we lead with news that that Liberal Democrats are expected to call for an independent inquiry into the decriminalisation of possession of all drugs. It would be the first government-sponsored inquiry into decriminalisation, but is unlikely to have the support of David Cameron who has hardened his approach to drugs after being a past advocate of more liberal legislation ~ MW & CS

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of July 31st 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 31 July 2011
The WHO refers to hepatitis C (HCV) as a “viral time bomb” due to the remarkable toll in worldwide infections and the extent of time it takes for HCV to become symptomatic. Globally, between 130-170 million people are chronically infected with HCV. In this report we take a closer look at the global response to HCV in the days following the first official World Hepatitis Day ~ MW & CS

Chasing Amy: Prohibition and the Infantilization of Addiction

Charles Shaw 27 July 2011
Amy Winehouse was a sick young woman in desperate need of healing. Instead, we treated her like a misbehaving child. The result was another preventable overdose, and the loss of another remarkable talent. When will we learn?

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of July 24th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 24 July 2011
This report is dedicated to the memory of Amy Winehouse, who tragically passed away yesterday. As we mourn the loss of so talented a musician, let us also pay tribute to and remember the many millions of vulnerable, marginalised and stigmatised people who have died drug related deaths; and human cost of the failed war on drugs ~ MW & CS

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of July 18th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 18 July 2011
This week we lead with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture's new Report on Poland - highlighting a serious lack of progress towards the 'care of inmates with drug related problems.' In other news we take a look at the trailer for new film, 'Breaking the Taboo'; explore the ongoing tragedy of the Mexico's war on drugs; and look at the new Rome Declaration ~ MW & CS

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of July 9th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 9 July 2011
Portugal decriminalized all drugs 10 years ago and the results are in: decreased youth drug use, falling overdose and HIV/AIDS rates, less crime, reduced criminal justice expenditures, greater access to drug treatment, and safer and healthier communities ~ MW & CS

The Exile Nation Project - Interview with The November Coalition

Charles Shaw 7 July 2011
Founder Nora Callahan and her husband, activist and former prisoner Chuck Armsbury, talk about a lifetime spent fighting for the rights of drug offenders everywhere.

oD Drug Policy Forum: Front Line Report - Week of July 4th 2011

Mark Weiss and Charles Shaw 4 July 2011
We lead this weeks Report with news that the Bolivian government has formally notified the UN Secretary General of its withdrawal from the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. In other news, we look at the relationship between torture and drugs, and explore the Russian Government's counterproductive drug policies ~ MW & CS

The Exile Nation Project: Amy Ralston Povah (Pt. 2)

Charles Shaw 3 July 2011
In Part II of her interview, Amy relays the horrors of her arrest and prosecution, the 9 years she spent in prison, and her long and arduous journey to eventually win clemency in 2000 from President Clinton.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

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