Drug Policy Project
The Drug Policy Project combines scholarship with activism to transform drug control policy both at home and abroad. The Project works with grassroots entities, media, and policy makers to shift away from the drug “war” paradigm and its disastrous impacts on the environment, toward holistic policies that address public health, safety and economic alternatives to the prohibition drug economy.
The intersection of race and poverty in the drug war is at the heart of the project’s work. The project has focused recently on the attendant “collateral damage” caused by the United States exporting its drug war to Colombia and Afghanistan, peace efforts in Colombia, drug war-related politics in the Philippines, and border politics between the U.S. and Mexico. Establishing humane and sustainable alternatives to the “drug war” paradigm fits into the IPS mandate as a major contemporary social justice issue on a global scale.
Latest Work
‘I Don’t Mind the Work’: An IPS Tribute to Harry Belafonte
IPS experts remember their time with the legendary activist, entertainer, and IPS board member.
Danny Glover Supports Landmark Reparations Fund in Chicago Suburb
The Hollywood actor spoke at an Evanston townhall in support of a new policy to use revenue from marijuana legalization to narrow racial economic gaps.
World Drug Day and the Movement to Legalize Marijuana
On World Drug Day, Sanho Tree discusses marijuana legalization around the world and how countries are confronting drug abuse and trafficking.
Has the U.S. 'War on Drugs' Failed?
Derek Maltz and Sanho Tree debate the one-trillion-dollar 'war on drugs' and Trump's dream of a border wall with Mexico.
The Heat: Canada’s decision to legalize marijuana
Canada recently became the first industrialized nation to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
The War on Drugs Breeds Crafty Traffickers
By making drugs ever more valuable, increasingly punitive prohibition policies have only amplified the motivational feedback loop of the very people lawmakers are trying to stop.
VIDEO: Trump's Wall Would Make the Opioid Crisis Worse
The president says his signature border policy would stop drugs. Instead, it would lead to more deadly adulterants and overdoses.
VIDEO: Trump Is All in on the Philippine Drug War
Trump has lavished praised on Duterte's extrajudicial murders — and Duterte's envoy to the U.S. is developing a little project called Trump Tower Manila.
One Year Into Duterte's Bloody Regime
There are countless reasons why President Duterte’s Drug War isn’t helping Philippine society—and a $140 million reason President Trump might be willing to look the other way.
How Drugs Will Get Under, Over, and Around Trump's Wall
A wall may be a powerful symbol, but it won't be a useful tool in the war on drugs, Sanho Tree explains in an interview with Vice.
How the War on Drugs Has Made Drug Traffickers More Ruthless and Efficient
In this interview with Vox, IPS drug policy expert Sanho Tree explains how evolution could have predicted the failure of the war on drugs.
A Border Wall Basically Sets an XPRIZE for Criminals to Penetrate Our Border
No matter how tall or deep Trump's wall is, it will not stop the flow of drugs or traffickers into the U.S., in fact it will heighten the national security risk.
Trump's Border Wall Won't Solve Our Heroin Crisis
Prohibition breeds heroin substitutes that are often more dangerous and more difficult to stop, Tree tells CCTV.
Duterte's Extrajudicial Killings Will Only Make the Philippines' Drug Problem Worse
Ramping up the risk premium through harsher tactics only makes drug trafficking more profitable, IPS drug policy expert Sanho Tree told CCTV.
The False Dichotomy Between Food and Drugs
Western civilization's arbitrary categorization of drugs into UN treaties flies in the face of thousands of years of traditional medicine, Sanho Tree tells Free Culture Radio.
Free Trade Agreements Have Exacerbated a Humanitarian Crisis in Central America
Proposals like the Alliance for Prosperity Plan and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will only accelerate a race to the bottom for families in the Northern triangle of Latin America, Manuel Perez-Rocha said at the AFL-CIO conference on U.S. trade policy.
The Global Consensus on Drugs is "Shattered"
Drug policy expert Sanho Tree tells CCTV that two different worlds are developing. While the Americas are moving towards legalization, other countries are clamping down harder on drug laws.
How the U.S.-Led War on Drugs Ravaged Central America
IPS drug policy expert Sanho Tree says strategies to address underlying drivers, including inequality and systemic lack of opportunities in Central America, is key to developing alternatives to the war on drugs.
![[VIDEO] Peru’s Cocaine War: Traffickers vs. Farmers](https://i0.wp.com/ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SanhoTreeAlJazeera.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
What's Being Done to End the War on Drugs? Live Chat Recap.
IPS' drug policy expert answers questions about the drug war in a live chat in New Zealand
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