Fentanyl testing strips as well as the opioid-reversal drug naloxone (commonly known as Narcan) are becoming the sine qua non of the party scene, distributed everywhere cultural denizens hang out: nightclubs, art galleries, downtown streetwear stores, even housewarming parties in Brooklyn. Fentanyl has turned into an indiscriminate spectre in the club scene. The deadly synthetic opioid has been flooding the street market as dealers bulk out recreational drugs like cocaine and heroin with fentanyl. No one can say exactly why it has become so common. Many clubbers now see recreational drug use akin to a game of Russian roulette, and as nightclubs reopened this year, warnings spread through social media about bad batches causing accidental overdoses in these communities.

Como secretario de la Federació d’Associacions de Cànnabis de Catalunya (CatFAC) desde el 2017, Eric Asensio es uno de los activistas mejor informados sobre la actualidad asociativa y la lucha por la regulación del cannabis en España. En estos momentos de desconcierto, en los que la situación internacional es favorable pero en nuestro país la represión se ceba con las asociaciones y el sector, la división del movimiento cannábico en una sopa de siglas no ayuda ni tampoco deja ver los esfuerzos del activismo más comprometido. Inmune al desaliento, pero crítico con la situación, Eric Asensio señala en sus respuestas la necesidad de la unión para asumir los retos presentes y el futuro inmediato, sin dejar de recordar los logros pasados y la experiencia acumulada.

At least 500 pro-legalization protesters gathered in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday for 420, the annual April 20 celebration marked by cannabis consumers around the world, to urge the government to move forward with its plans to decriminalize the drug. "We will introduce the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for recreational purposes in licensed stores," the government promised. But five months on and there has been no word or timetable about when legal stores might be opened, and pro-cannabis activists are getting impatient at what they consider unnecessary foot-dragging. After all, the Green Party, now a part of the government coalition, has already presented a draft law to the Bundestag in the last few years and seen it defeated.

La aventura empresarial de Jerry Martin ha durado apenas 24 horas, pero espera que su gesto tenga impacto en las leyes de su país. Martin, de 51 años de edad, abrió el miércoles una tienda móvil de drogas duras en el Downtown Eastside, un barrio de Vancouver afectado sobremanera por la ola de sobredosis en Canadá. El jueves, la policía de esta ciudad de la provincia de Columbia Británica anunció su arresto. El establecimiento ofrecía a sus clientes heroína, cocaína, metanfetamina y MDMA. El Ministerio de Salud de Canadá puso en marcha el 31 de enero un proyecto piloto –de tres años de duración- que despenaliza la posesión de varias drogas duras en Columbia Británica, primera iniciativa de este tipo en el país.

Activistas del cannabis en Uruguay realizó una “concentración y fumata” frente a la Suprema Corte de Justicia (SCJ) en reclamo por el “excesivo punitivismo ejercido por los operadores judiciales y policiales” sobre los autocultivadores de cannabis. Esta persecución se realiza en el marco legal generado por “la LUC [Ley de Urgente Consideración], el Nuevo Código del Proceso Penal y las instrucciones de fiscalía en referencia al combate al microtráfico”. “Tras haberse regulado en 2013 en nuestro país la producción y expendio de marihuana en flor, nos enfrentamos hoy por hoy a una política de seguridad pública y drogas con un pronunciado sesgo belicista y prohibicionista”, continúa la misiva. (Véase también: A través de un convenio con el Ircca, la Policía puede acceder sin intermediarios a las direcciones de los clubes cannábicos)

A series of protests which began on January 15 in various cities and neighborhoods across Tunisia have largely focused on economic inequality and police repression. But recently, some of those protesting have revived an old demand of decriminalizing cannabis usage. One event appears to have pushed some to take up this demand again with renewed visibility in the streets and on social media: on January 21, 2021 a judge in El Kef handed out 30-year jail sentences to three young men for cannabis consumption in a public place. The high attendance at these protests may stem in part from widespread anger at the 30-year jail sentence. However, some of the recent street activism may be traced to planning going back even further, to six months ago, according to one organizer.

In recent years, the international debate on drug policy reform has intensified, and with it has come a productive exchange of information between academics, activists and advocates on the diverse models and approaches in different countries. Portugal’s decriminalization model is the subject of numerous reports and articles, the legalization of cannabis in a number of U.S. states and Uruguay is heavily studied. Heroin-Assisted Treatment (HAT) in Switzerland is often discussed, and the Czech Republic’s progressive drug policy has been much heralded. On the outside looking in is Spain, a country with a curious mix of cannabis clubs, decriminalization of drug possession for personal use, innovative harm reduction policies, drug checking, and more. It also occupies an interesting geographical position as a transit hub for drugs entering Europe from the Americas and North Africa. Yet in mainstream drug policy discussions, little is known of the Spanish approach to drug policy, with the possible exception of cannabis clubs.

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Canada remains in the grips of a deadly toxic drug crisis that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands. It’s a crisis that has been blamed on a war — the war on drugs — fuelled by what policy experts and people who use drugs say is a mix of prohibition, criminalization, lack of supports and stigma. In the face of what is called government foot-dragging on providing the tools needed to stem the tide of death, activists are taking action, recently launching a fulfilment centre and compassion club in Vancouver, which procures, tests, repackages, and distributes drugs to people at high risk of overdose. The group is risking their liberty in the process, as the club is not legal — but they’re fighting the federal government in court so that it can be. They haven’t been shy about publicizing their activities, and have even been visited by the federal minister for addictions.

Martin Barriuso, the president of of Pannagh and the Federation of Cannabis Associations (FAC) in Spain and two fellow activists from the Pannagh cannabis social club have been released. They had been erroneously arrested for drug trafficking in Bilbao on Monday, November 14. Cannabis social clubs are registered, non-profit associations that are formed by adult people who consume cannabis.

Cientos de personas marcharon por el centro de Santiago para pedir la regulación del cannabis en el país y en conta del narcotráfico y el crimen organizado que "controlan la oferta y la calidad del cannabis consumido". Bajo el lema "Contra el narcotráfico, Cultiva tus derechos", los participantes de la marcha ocuparon la avenida Alameda, la principal arteria de la capital, para revindicar el libre consumo y cosecha de cannabis. "La regulación del acceso al cannabis es la vía más inteligente y práctica para alejar a las y los usuarios de cannabis del mercado ilegal", indicaba en un comunicado la Fundación Daya, una de las convocantes. Fumando cannabis y portando globos verdes, la mayoría de los participantes en la marcha pedían dejar de estigmatizar a los usuarios. 

The City of Vancouver voted unanimously in favour of supporting a peer-led program that would help get a safe supply of drugs to individuals at high risk of overdose. Coun. Jean Swanson called for the approval of North America’s first compassion club that gives access to prescription heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Swanson said that given the overdose crisis, blamed on tainted street drugs, federal approval is needed for the project run by the Drug User Liberation Front, which has teamed up with Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users to host giveaways of substances purchased from the dark web — “so they won’t be arrested for saving lives.” (See also: Vancouver votes to support application that would create safe drug 'compassion clubs' | Toronto’s bid to decriminalize drugs hangs in the balance)

The ultimate goal of a campaign by charity Unharm called Let’s be honest/Change the story, is to decriminalise all drug use in Australia by 2030. One of the major tactics Unharm is mimicking the strategy of gay equality law reform movements: by persuading people to “come out” about their use. Will Tregoning, Unharm’s CEO, sees a decriminalised future looking like an improved form of the system we have for alcohol. The idea of incremental change is based on the model proposed by the Queensland Productivity Commission in 2019: “Begin by decriminalising drug use and move from there to legalisation of supply starting with cannabis and MDMA. Without the fear of criminalisation we can also have more open and honest conversations about drugs, to help get the later law reforms right.”

A drone dropped hundreds of bags of cannabis over Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, attracting dozens of confused people, who rushed to pick up as many bags as they could carry. The bags of cannabis were dropped by the "green drone" Telegram group, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis in Israel, with "free love" being the group's slogan. Before dropping the cannabis over Tel Aviv, the group published a message on Telegram, hinting at the planned operation. The operation was part of the group's celebratory launching of a new delivery system titled "rain of cannabis." "We're launching the 'rain of cannabis' project, that will include a weekly delivery to different parts of the country of 1 kilo of cannabis divided into free 2 gram bags," the message stated.

A Vancouver based drug policy researcher has been working for decades to get the federal government to regulate illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. Don MacPherson authored the groundbreaking Four Pillars Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver in 2001 — calling for this kind of regulation. Now, 16 years later, and in the midst of a year-long public health emergency in B.C. centred around overdose deaths, MacPherson continues to try to convince politicians that this is the only way out of the overdose crisis. "It's clear that every thing we are doing is not working. It's absolutely pathetic that we can not move beyond this paradigm that we have supported for so many years and at the cost of so many lives." (See also: And the band played on: Overdoses, death and a resistance to change)

In late 2020, a converted van appeared in central Glasgow. Inside were clean needles, sterilising equipment, mirrors, “sharps bins” for the disposal of syringes, and supplies of the overdose reversal drug naloxone. There were also boxes containing protein bars, tea, blankets and a defibrillator, as well as two chairs and tables where injections could be prepared. The van had been converted, and was being driven, by Peter Krykant – an ex-outreach worker with his own history of homelessness and injecting drug use. Frustrated with the fact that no overdose prevention centre (OPC) had yet opened in the city despite calls from the local NHS, he took the law into his own hands and, after a successful crowdfunding campaign, opened one independently.

A new drug-user advocacy group in Vancouver says the safe supply of prescription narcotics must include pharmaceutical-grade heroin and cocaine and — to kickstart the effort — they’ve started giving those drugs away for free themselves. Dozens of people who use drugs marched in the city’s Downtown Eastside and set up an overdose prevention site where they distributed free doses of cocaine that had been tested for fentanyl, carfentanyl, benzodiazepines and other dangerous contaminants. Organizers had planned to distribute up to 200 doses of free heroin as well, but existing supply lines have become so contaminated that they couldn’t find any. Calling itself the Drug User Liberation Front, the group also called on the B.C. government to make broad changes to the current safe supply guidelines.

On May 4 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) distributed 3.5 grams each of fentanyl-free heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to members of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society. The action, dedicated to the 165 people in British Columbia recorded to have died of drug toxicity in March 2022, comes in the wake of Health Canada’s de facto rejection of DULF’s bid to distribute safe supply legally through a compassion club model. On April 21, nearly eight months after receiving the organization’s section 56 exemption request, Health Canada notified DULF that it did not intend to approve it.

Vancouver police have arrested drug policy activists Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum after executing search warrants on the Drug User Liberation Front office and their homes. Since 2020, Nyx and Kalicum have held protest events and operated a compassion club to supply tested heroin, cocaine and meth to drug users, despite the risk of arrest for breaking Canada’s controlled substances laws. Nyx and Kalicum said they were driven to break drug laws through firsthand experience of the overdose crisis. Vancouver police say Nyx and Kalicum were arrested so police could question them as part of an ongoing investigation. DULF has operated a compassion club for months and has frequently spoken to media about the specifics of the model. (See also: Study shows selling tested drugs saves lives)

Cientos de pequeñas bolsas con marihuana cayeron del cielo de Tel Aviv en una acción distintos transeúntes calificaron de “milagrosa”. Decenas de personas corrieron a lo largo de la calle Rabin intentado agarrar todas las bolsas que pudieron contener en sus manos. Pero el episodio no tuvo nada que ver con un milagro. Por el contrario, forma parte de una campaña por la legalización de la marihuana impulsada por el Grupo Green Drone (Dron verde). Además, el mensaje indicaba que la operación era parte del lanzamiento de un nuevo sistema de entrega titulado “lluvia de cannabis”. “Estamos lanzando el proyecto llamado ’lluvia de cannabis’, que incluirá una entrega semanal a diferentes partes del país de 1 kilo de cannabis dividido en bolsas de 2 gramos gratis”, explicaba la organización.

It is ironic, but if Malta does end up legalising recreational cannabis, one quiet man from Wales may be the one to thank for it. Prior to 2011, there were passionate activists fighting for better cannabis laws on the island – but I, like many others of my generation, only got involved in organising and lobbying for legalisation after the brutal imprisonment of Daniel Holmes in Malta. After his story sent shockwaves throughout the cannabis community, making many of us believe the island was moving towards an ultra-conservative USA-style police state where people could face serious jail time for growing plants at home, a number of people began organising.