Sporadic liberalization may have an effect on peoples’ attitudes toward drug laws. Through decriminalization, legalization and potentially legal advertising, marijuana may lose the social and criminal stigma currently associated with it. In the U.S., national and statewide polls conducted since the legalization votes in Washington state and Colorado show greater public acceptance of marijuana legalization … Continue reading Local Marijuana Legalization in U.S., Mexico May Impact Hemisphere-Wide Policy

Key Points: Through the delivery of aid, some countries have tried to export their preferred drug control policies and have leveraged the recipients’ need for aid to influence their policy approach. The approaches adopted in many aid agreements seem to be insulated from the advances in the global debate about alternative drug policies and harm … Continue reading Drug markets, security and foreign aid

Earlier this month, Uruguay's House of Representatives passed a bill legalizing marijuana and regulating the production, distribution and sale of the drug by the government. While the bill has yet to be approved by the Uruguayan Senate, its passage is expected. Uruguay would then become the first country in the world where marijuana is fully … Continue reading Uruguay Marijuana Bill Portends New Era in Drug Policy

The Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas, published on 17 May by the Organization of American States (OAS), represents an opportunity to rethink the international debate on drugs and organized crime. Mandated at the 2012 Summit of the Americas in Colombia, the report explores new approaches to the 'war on drugs', amid growing … Continue reading Gamechanging Report on Drugs in the Americas

A two-part interview discussing ongoing efforts to combat illegal narcotics, published in February and March 2013. The UN believes Peru has become the world’s largest coca leaf producer and rivals Colombia for cocaine production. Some argue that this is as a result of the narco-war in Colombia, which has pushed traffickers elsewhere. Colombia has in … Continue reading Narco Wars, Part 1 and 2

States and international organisations struggle with constructive ways of engaging non-state armed groups, such as rebels, militias, paramilitaries, and warlords. Their traditional rules of engagement focus on state actors as dominant actors in the international system, and underline the national integrity of states. In doing so, they fail to attend to the non-state nature of … Continue reading Reasoning with Rebels

Armed groups have become a more than common feature in today’s conflicts. As of 2010, all active conflicts involve at least one non-state armed actor, if not several, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Yet, the international community still faces severe difficulties in dealing with them. Naturally, different strategies have been designed to deal … Continue reading Reasoning with Rebels: the Nitty-Gritty of Engaging Armed Groups