The Beckley Foundation’s Drug Policy Programme is dedicated to providing a rigorous, independent review of global drug policy, with the aim of developing policies that are based on health, harm-reduction, and cost-effective principle that respect human rights. We aim to encourage the adoption of new evidence-based, rational policies, rather than policies rooted in an unscientific ideology and political expediency.
To work towards this aim we commission academic research into key policy topics, such as the social and economic impact of different drugs and the effects of their prohibition. We disseminate the information about it through our publications and our website. We also organize and host influential international seminars which bring together politicians, academics, and leading experts in associated fields. Our aim is to reform global drug policy from its very basis, i.e. the three UN Conventions, which underlie global drug policy.
The Beckley Foundation warmly welcomed the Select Committee’s inquiry into drug policy and its invitation to present submissions. Improving drug policy is one of the key policy challenges of our time. The inquiry commenced on 24th January 2012 & began with oral evidence from Sir Richard Branson and Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, both [...]
TNI Series on Legislative Reform of Drug Policies Nr. 17 January 2012 By Axel Klein, Pien Metaal and Martin Jelsma Khat has been consumed for hundreds if not thousands of years in the highlands of Eastern Africa and Southern Arabia. Outside that area, khat use was first observed during the 1980s, but has only attracted [...]
Khat has been consumed for hundreds if not thousands of years in the highlands of Eastern Africa and Southern Arabia. Outside that area, khat use was first observed during the 1980s, but has only attracted wider attention in recent years. Where khat has been studied extensively, namely Australia, the UK and until recently the Netherlands, [...]
Amanda Feilding, Director of the Beckley Foundation, has attended the Information Expert Seminar on the Future of the UN Drug Control Treaties, organised by the TNI (http://www.tni.org) and the IDPC (http://www.idpc.net) in Prague, 25-26 January. The seminar will examine the current status of the UN Drug Conventions, and explore the rationales and options for their revision, including [...]
The Global Cannabis Commission Report was Convened by Amanda Feilding – Director of the Beckley Foundation To download the full report click here. Authors of the Report: Professors Robin Room – Wayne Hall – Peter Reuter – Benedikt Fischer – Simon Lenton Commissioners of the Conclusions and Recommendations: – Robin Room – Wayne Hall – [...]
23/11/2011 The British Neuroscience Association’s President Professor David Nutt will deliver the Monica Fooks Memorial Lecture entitled “How can we get the media to tell the truth about drugs?” on Wednesday, 23 November 2011. When: 23rd November 2011 Where: University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford Description The venue is the University Museum of [...]
Helen Redmond for Al Jazeera – 23/11/2011 Chicago, IL – The War on Drugs is a global war without end. The battle takes more prisoners than all conventional wars combined and yet the availability of psychoactive substances never significantly diminishes. Those who sell and consume illegal drugs are subject to some of the harshest punishments [...]
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pledged to “clean up the mess” of the War on Drugs within 6 months if he becomes President of Mexico. Lopez Obrador argues that soldiers should be sent back to their barracks and replaced by social workers and jobs. “You can’t fight violence with violence,” he said on national radio [...]
Policies and responses must be fit to face the challenges of the next decade, says drugs agency chief Press release from the EMCDDA website The Annual report 2011: the state of the drugs problem in Europe is ‘one of contrasts’, says the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA). Launched yesterday in Lisbon, the report shows drug use [...]
Mexico’s military and police have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat organized crime, virtually none of which are being adequately investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 212-page report “Neither Rights Nor Security: Killings, Torture, and Disappearances in Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs,’” examines the human rights consequences of [...]
