Are We in a Drugs Apartheid?
Are We in a Drugs Apartheid?
Drugs’ legality is shifting before our eyes. New Zealand tried to ban young people from legally purchasing cigarettes, while the UK prohibited the possession of nitrous oxide. Thailand may re-criminalise cannabis after struggling to control its open market, while the Netherlands is piloting the first European recreational cannabis programme. But it can be difficult to identify what motivates such changes to drug laws and how significant these are.
In this article, we offer the “drug apartheid” as a theoretical framework to contextualise how and why drug policies exist and emerge. Why, as a global society, do we have strikingly similar drug policies, where some drugs are traded freely while others are strictly prohibited? Are recent drug policy reforms challenging this model? (Talking Drugs, UK, 30.01.2024)