• Hot Off The 'Net

    2010 In Review

    MAP presents 2010 in review.

    http://mapinc.org/find?365 (United States)
    http://mapinc.org/find?366 (Canada)
    http://mapinc.org/find?367 (United Kingdom)
    http://mapinc.org/find?368 (South America)
    http://mapinc.org/find?369 (Australasia)
    http://mapinc.org/find?370 (Asia)

  • Hot Off The 'Net

    Top 8 Drug Stories of 2010

    Momentum Is Building to End the Failed Drug War

    The debate around failed marijuana prohibition and the larger drug war arrived in a big way in 2010. Here are some of the most significant stories of the year.

    It’s been a difficult year for progressives, and most other Americans as well. While I feel discouraged about many things happening in our country and around the world, and have lost lots of my “Yes We Can” glow from only two years ago, the issue that is closest to my heart — ending the war on people who use drugs — continues to bring me hope and cautious optimism.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net

    Northern Illinois U. Finally Recognizes Students for Sensible Drug Policy

    DEKALB, Ill., Dec. 10, 2010—Northern Illinois University (NIU) has finally given full recognition to NIU Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) after the Student Association Senate twice denied the group any recognition, which had prevented SSDP from meeting or posting flyers on campus. But Senate policy still denies funding to all “political” and “religious” student organizations. This arbitrary standard classifies Christian, Muslim, and Jewish organizations as “religious” and therefore ineligible for funding, while the campus Baha’i Club is funded as a “cultural” group. Similarly, groups such as Model United Nations are considered “political” while many “social justice” or “advocacy” groups—including student pro-life, pro-choice, antiwar, women’s rights, vegetarian, and victims’ rights groups—are fully recognized. SSDP came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

  • Hot Off The 'Net - International

    Time for an Impact Assessment of Drug Policy

    All stakeholders in the debate on drug policy share the goal of maximising social, environmental, physical and psychological wellbeing. At a time of economic crisis, it is particularly important that drug policy expenditure is cost-effective. Yet despite the many billions of dollars in drug-related spending each year, there are significant concerns about the effectiveness of current approaches at the domestic and international level. The time has come to provide an objective mechanism for assessing the relative merits of different policy approaches, by developing a genuinely evidence-based Impact Assessment (IA) of Drug Policy that compares the impact of alternative policies on human development, human security and human rights.

  • Drug Policy - Hot Off The 'Net - International

    IV drug policy fails HIV patients: Red Cross

    The spread of HIV and AIDS among millions of people could be slowed if addicts who inject drugs were treated as medical patients rather than as criminals, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Friday.

    More than 80 per cent of the world’s governments “are inclined to artificial realities, impervious to the evidence that treating people who inject drugs as criminals is a failed policy that contributes to the spread of HIV,” the Red Cross said.

    An estimated 16 million people worldwide inject drugs, mainly because it delivers the fastest, most intense high, in what has become a growing trend on every continent, according to the Red Cross.

    The launch of the International Federation of the Red Cross’ 24-page report — essentially to promote a new strategy for nations to stop the spread of the virus among injecting drug users — comes in the week before World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.