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September 28: A World Divided Over Drugs: Lessons from the United States, Latin America, and Beyond

Sanho Tree Lecture

A World Divided Over Drugs: Lessons from the United States, Latin America, and Beyond

Sanho Tree, Director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC

Wednesday September 28th at 6-7:30pm in Hale 230

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

After over a century of international prohibitionist policies that target drug producers, sellers, users, and addicts with harassment, arrest, and prison, half the planet is finally rolling back the “drug war,” while the other half is escalating it. Many countries in the Americas and Europe are moving to end repressive drug policies that have caused far more suffering than drug use ever could. Meanwhile, countries on the other side of the world are ruthlessly enforcing this antiquated paradigm with devastating results. What hard lessons from Mexico, Colombia, Portugal, and the U.S. can be applied to countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, which have seen a staggering rise of state-sanctioned killings of drug offenders? What is the promise of decriminalizing and even legalizing drugs, and of reorienting public funds away from a punitive criminal justice system and toward harm reduction? Sanho Tree, Director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, will speak on the progress and setbacks of drug policy reform efforts taking place in the world today.