We see it as our duty to amplify the voice of the silent majority. The vast majority of the global population does not use illicit drugs and wants to live in communities free from drug-related harm. This is one of the messages from the first session of the Istanbul Initiative.

Alcohol is a barrier to achieving both good and equitable health, on a global scale. Targets 3.4 and 3.5 of the third Sustainable Development Goal will not be achieved without addressing alcohol use. This is the conclusion of a newly published report written by SERAF, The Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research.

Four Norwegian NGOs are running a new campaign putting Norwegian politicians, if not up against the wall then up on the wall, to exclude alcohol investments from the government’s “Oil Fund”. The message of the campaign is that these investments go contrary to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Collaboration with dictators and an alleged war criminal. Tax avoidance in African countries. High level corruption. Exploitation of weak political systems. High profits on beer sales. The use of “beer girls” to maximize sales.

Not all is bad, but it’s not all good either. This is the assessment of ten years of drug policy debate in the UN system, presented in the report “Peoples’ Voice” that was recently co-published by Drug Policy Futures and FORUT. The report has a critical analysis of the ongoing drug policy discourse and also a recommendation for policy areas that national governments should prioritize in the next ten years.