Counter-narcotics officer, Colombia. Fernando Vergara/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.More and more countries are breaking with the notion that a "drug free world" is possible − or even necessarily desirable. They urge reforms to reduce the violence associated with the illicit drug market and the harmful health effects. But the prohibition-focused international drug control treaties remain in place, despite their failure to reduce the trade after five decades of brutal efforts. Change is happening, but from the bottom up.
In the articles, videos and personal stories we are publishing this week, we reflect on the tremendous pitfalls of the ‘war on drugs’, the widening gulf among governments over the punitive approach, the myths that fed into this system in the first place, and the policy innovations that can be expected in the coming years.
