Welcome to the latest Front Line Report - our largest yet - bringing you a collection of stories from across the globe, from national and international news and media outlets and UN agencies. This week we continue our documentary updates from the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union's Drug Reporter sit
On Thursday evening, prominent TV journalist Leonid Parfyonov broke with the etiquette of live award ceremonies, and made an unannounced and sensational attack on the state of Russian journalism. Russian TV bosses have become slaves to government bureaucrats, he said, and in so doing are complicit
10 years ago former tennis prodigy Viktor Potemkin (not his real name) decided to come off heroin and leave the criminal world. He did this using the detox approach. Now he teaches, and trains future tennis stars. He talked to Mumin Shakirov.
This weeks front line report covers a broad ground, from news of the Subtance Misuse Consortium in the UK working to drive treatment standards up; the relationship between hepitatitis C, substance misuse and health equality; a 20 fold increase in the number of users criminalized in Ukraine; and th
Russia’s summer of the wildfires brought about a change in society, says Andrei Loshak. Previously the only possible options for those disenchanted with the system were to take the streets or pack our bags and leave. Now we have another: self-help and self- organisation, much in the spirit of the
Irina Teplinskaya was born with every advantage. But when she started taking drugs, there was no effective help to be had. She tells the harrowing story of her life as an addict: driven to crime, in and out of prison camps and hospitals, but fighting all the way for her right to treatment.
In Russia drug addicts are seen as scum: the sooner they die, the better. In this second part of her story Irina tells of her life after prison. What will she make of it? What, if any, support will she get from friends, relations or state bodies?
The legal declaration that Phil Woolas knowingly lied and his election was void has reignited a debate on politics as a black art. Now it seems the dark spirit is animating government and official statements are not to be believed either.
We lead this week with our very own Charles Shaw, and an eloquent piece written for today's Guardian Society about the "madness" that is the war on drugs, and what US policymakers can learn from their European partners.
Oleg Kashin, a journalist for Kommersant newspaper, was brutally beaten in Moscow last weekend. Unknown assailants broke his jaw, legs and bent his fingers. He remains critically ill. Here we publish a selection of Kashin’s blog entries.
As Charles Shaw's Unheard Voices Project comes to the UK, I am pleased to lead this weeks Front Line Report with news of a what promises to be a truly exciting evening of discussion - 'Who's Addicted to the War on Drugs', a free openDemocracy event, this Tuesday 16th November in King's Cross, Lond
