United Nations

Meeting in Vienna last week, representatives of more than 300 non-governmental organizations concerned with various aspects of drug policy crafted a consensus document calling for a fundamental shift in global drug control.

Another major study has shown that drug policy doesn't affect drug use rates, and we already know the drug war doesn't affect sales. But we know the harm that prohibition does. So what's the point?

The US and European Union are threatening to stop helping Iran fight to stem the tide of Afghan opium and heroin -- heroin destined not only for the Islamic republics but also for the veins of users in places like Berlin and London. It's part of the high-wire pressure act aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program.

The Taliban is profiting from prohibition. The Islamic insurgents made $100 million last year taxing poppy farmers, UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa said this week.

UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa let slip some intemperate remarks during the UN drug meeting in Vienna this week.

As the UN's Commission on Narcotic Drugs met this week in Vienna, it and its brother UN anti-drug agencies came under fierce attack for sacrificing human rights on the altar of the drug war.

The International Narcotics Control Board wants the governments of Bolivia and Peru to ban coca chewing. Not happening.

The UN's International Narcotics Control Board has called for greater access to and use of opioid pain relievers in the developing world. In a slap at proposals to license and "medicalize" the Afghan opium crop, the INCB argues that global supply isn't the problem.

Medical marijuana vending machines, oh my! The International Narcotics Control Board expresses its "concern."

As part of a series of regional forums in advance of next month's meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Vancouver this week hosted a forum where participants sent a clear signal that prohibition is not working.