Dr. Dan Werb has been named Director and Scientific Board Chair of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP).

The ICSDP asked the United Nations to take a hard look at the scientific evidence during a Civil Society Hearing held last month.

How do governments know drug enforcement is working? Generally by measuring seizures, arrests, and convictions—based on the assumption that the more drugs are confiscated, and the more drug users and dealers are imprisoned, the fewer drugs will be available. That assumption appears to be wrong.

BMJ Open study shows illegal drugs cheaper, more potent despite law enforcement efforts.

At the Summit of the Americas in Colombia, Harper said: "I think what everyone believes and agrees with, and to be frank myself, is that the current approach is not working, but it is not clear what we should do."

The recent episode of cannibalism in Miami sent shockwaves of disgust and horror across the world, with some commentators likening it to an impending zombie apocalypse. When it was announced that the perpetrator was high on something called "bath salts" during the time of the attack, a new wave of drug hysteria (think reefer madness) launched full tilt.

In science, debates are often the best forum to tackle issues where evidence supports both sides of an uncertain issue. The harms of anti-depressant medication among youth, the value of genetically modified crops, the dangers of cellphone use -- these are all areas where scientific evidence is split, and for that reason debate serves society well. But there are other "debates" that are anything but scientific; debates in which the conversation isn't between people weighing scientific evidence, but between scientific evidence and those that would prefer to deny its existence.

A study recently published in the Lancet demonstrates the impact that Vancouver’s supervised injection site (Insite) has had on overdose mortality over the last few years.

In March 2011, JAIDS (Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 2011:56;S1) devotes an entire supplement on the integration of buprenorphine, an opiate substitution therapy, and HIV treatment for HIV-positive injection drug users. Drs. Gerald Friedland and David Vlahov, both of whom worked on the studies, note that buprenorphine has an improved safety profile compared with methadone, including fewer adverse interactions with antiretroviral therapies.

Bill S-10 currently being considered by the House of Commons calls for the introduction of mandatory sentences as deterrents to organized crime and large scale drug dealing in Canada. There are serious doubts about the value of this strategy , and many of the country’s health, research, and academic leaders have objected , aware of the many hazards of this approach . But there is also a body of evidence from the US that can inform Canada’s decision on S -10 and help avoid the disastrous mistake that mandatory drug sentencing has been for the US – in effect launching a 35 year epidemic of mass incarceration and collateral harms to million of Americans.