Julian Assange has attracted considerable political support – but our politicians are failing the less celebrated but brave individuals who blow the whistle on dangerous employers and services.

It is a fundamental political error to casually associate Wikileaks with neoconservatism or reactionary populism. No affinity between these two worlds is possible.

In a world where states have been able to disguise their intentions, Jeremy Fox examines the implications of technological advancements on the necessary transparency that governments need to address.

We lead this week with an article by Damon Barrett, who argues that drugs and the drug trade are presented in international treaty law at the UN as an existential threat to us - through our children; but goes on to expose the true reality of the war on drugs - that so often it is our children who fall victim to, and are not saved by, this failed strategy ~ MW

With around 80,000 claimants of Incapacity Benefit having a drug or alcohol dependency, we lead this weeks report with DrugScope's caution over the DWP's 'incapacity revolution'. In other news we look at injecting drug use in prisons; calls for drug policy reform in Poland; and Wikileaks reveals the extent of the DEAs global reach ~ MW & CS

David House is a 23-year-old computer researcher from Boston, Massachusetts. Since September 2010, he has been one of the few to regularly visit Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. He has witnessed a disturbing degradation in Manning's health

Offering no explanation other than “internal policy”, PayPal yesterday froze the account of an organisation raising funds for Wikileaks suspect Bradley Manning. We should be concerned when a company of such size and influence chooses to adopt an overtly political stance on so controversial an issue, says Ryan Gallagher

We lead this first report of 2011 with a look back at the top stories of last year - a year which saw; the continuation of the Mexican tragedy; the failure to confront widespread Afghani opium production; and a rising clamour for a new paradigm and an end to drug prohibition. We look forward to keeping you up to date with all the latest developments in drug policy and criminal justice reform in 2011 ~ MW & CS