Commissioner Clark answers “Three Questions” for Financial Times Health

Three questions FT: We spoke to Helen Clark, former New Zealand prime minister, ex-chair of the UN Development Group and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, about its new report: The World Drug Perception Problem. Recommendations include shifts in language such as “people who use drugs” instead of “abusers”

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BMJ: “Avoid stigmatising language for people who use drugs, global commission urges”

People who use drugs are unfairly stigmatised by being described in derogatory terms by some clinicians, politicians, and the media, a global report has said. Read full article in the British Medical Journal.

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The Times of London: “Drop the term junkie to destigmatise ‘people who use drugs’”

People who take drugs should no longer be described as users, addicts or junkies, according to a global commission that says such pejorative terms should be phased out to prevent those who use drugs being stigmatised. A report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose members include Sir Nick

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The War on Drugs is a War on People – It’s Time to Change That

For many years, I’ve been talking about the need to reform global drug laws and to put people’s safety, health and wellbeing at the centre of drug policy. There has been remarkable progress as some governments have moved towards cannabis regulation while others made harm reduction the primary goal of

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BBC News: “Avoid saying ‘drug user’ to combat stigma, report urges”

Policymakers and the media should avoid using terms such as “drug user”, “addict” and “junkie”, a report by a group of former world leaders has said. Read article by the BBC.

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BBC World Service: “Nigeria’s Obasanjo speaks out on drug policy”

The Global Commission on Drug Policy – a group of eminent world leaders – has called for a rethink on drugs policy. They’ve released a new report saying the current attitude of stigmatising drugs is hindering effective policy-making, and argue that governments should be talking about ‘harm reduction’ rather than

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Globe and Mail: “Report highlights the need to clean the conversation around drug use”

Skewed perceptions of drugs and people who use them negatively affect both health and health care by feeding into harmful prohibitionist policies and sometimes directly affecting clinical care, according to a new international report that aims to counter such prejudices. Read article in The Globe and Mail

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LUSA/DN: “Relatório defende mudança de percepções para facilitar reformas sobre drogas”

Perceções erradas sobre o consumo de drogas alimentam políticas de proibição e repressão que continuam sem resolver o problema, alerta um relatório internacional publicado hoje em Londres, em que Portugal é considerado um exemplo positivo. O relatório “The World Drug Perception Problem” [O Problema Global da Perceção das Drogas], produzido

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Sir Nick Clegg in Daily Mirror: “Why attitudes to drug use must change”

The Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy urges Governments and opinion leaders to treat drugs seriously and provide the public with reliable information.  I have a radical notion for you. What would you say if I told you that using drugs or other techniques to alter consciousness is

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“The irrationality of modern drug laws, in one chart”

Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post how the current prohibitionist approach to drug policy is based on outdated treaties and laws that do not take into account the advances in science, stating “That disconnect is abundantly clear in the diagram below, which comes from a new report on world drug use

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