Inner City Growth: Exploring the Benefits of Hemp as a Construction Material
With the ongoing climate crisis, there has never been a more urgent need to question our relationship to material production. Could hemp be a solution?
Volteface News
New Initiative Aims To Improve The Medical Cannabis Industry By Putting Patients First
Volteface is today launching a new initiative that aims to improve the medical cannabis industry by giving patients a voice, and the chance to shape their future care. Partnering with Maple Tree Consultants, we have launched Patients First, a scheme which will pay medical cannabis patients for participating in professionally facilitated focus groups. Patients … Continued
New Head of Public Affairs Joins The Team
We are delighted to announce that Jay Jackson has joined Volteface as Head of Public Affairs. He will be leading on political engagement, bringing his intimate understanding of politics to the role, as well as contributing written content and ensuring that Volteface continues to be a hub of unique and engaging ideas and political strategy. … Continued
The New Leaf: Beyond Brexit, Countering Covid
The New Leaf Opportunities campaign has highlighted the economic benefits, innovations and investment opportunities that medical cannabis and CBD can bring to the UK. It has also focused on how celebrating this will lead to a more vibrant cannabis sector. This report has honed in on the opportunities that medical cannabis and CBD bring … Continued
Patient Access
On the Road: The complex path to travelling as a medical cannabis patient.
“It’s putting patients into vulnerable situations through no fault of their own.” I became a medical cannabis patient for my attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) during lockdown. During the pandemic, I was separated from my family in Ireland and unable to travel. So, I hadn’t realised how difficult this … Continued
New research finds ‘encouraging’ one-year psilocybin-assisted therapy response rates for patients with major depression
Psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, can be effective in treating major depression for up to one year, a new study shows. As scientists try to find a cure for depression, which affects over 280 million people globally, psilocybin is at the center of a resurgence in medical research on psychedelic drugs, with … Continued
Are Psychedelic Patents Ethical?
As the revolutionary therapeutic potential of psychedelics resurfaces in popular consciousness, pharmaceutical companies are scrambling for patents over psychedelic compounds and therapies. The unique characteristics of psychedelics provoke a plethora of ethical implications in intellectual property law and our capitalist society more broadly; namely, that the patenting of psychedelic compounds promotes biopiracy and threatens … Continued
Long Reads
The Survivor-Led Organisations Fighting Back Against The War on Drugs
In 2021, recorded drug deaths in America tragically surpassed 100,000. That’s more than every American soldier killed in action since World War II – including in Vietnam, Korea, both Iraq wars and Afghanistan – put together. According to the CDC, there were 100,306 fatal overdoses, three quarters of which were from opiates, 64% from fentanyls. As experts … Continued
Rethinking Heroin
I am an opioid user, or a former one anyhow. Contrary to the cliche, I’m not addicted. I never felt trapped or enslaved by my drug use. I never did anything I regretted to get high. I never shared needles – the sole time I shared a cooker due to interpersonal pressure, I promptly … Continued
Why is British Drug Policy so Disjointed?
In early January, as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a tentative degree of policy experimentation by piloting, in three boroughs, a diversion scheme whereby young people in possession of small amounts of cannabis would be offered counselling and support instead of arrest, the Metropolitan Police were out in Shoreditch conducting their own … Continued
General Advocacy
Drugs Policing Propaganda’s False Impressions of Success
Greater Manchester Police have again showcased their drug arrests on social media. It’s only one example of day to day media activity from British police, but it is notable how professional it looks. It really concerns me that police in the U.K. are getting so slick at social media. You could argue that they’re … Continued
Recovery for All: How Can Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Better Support BAME People?
Earlier this month, Volteface Director Paul and Research Officer Nicole hopped on a train to Nottingham to visit BAC-IN, a grass roots, peer-led addiction recovery service for BAME people. During our visit, we spoke to Co-founder/Managing Director Sohan Sahota and Senior Recovery Worker David Thomas to get a sense of what BAC-IN do, and … Continued
When Will The Media Take Drug Deaths Seriously?
Media reporting has time and again failed to provide correct information about the circumstances of drug deaths, evidencing the stigma and disdain with which those who take drugs are treated. Last week, news outlets reported the story of a 23-year-old who tragically died shortly after consuming edibles laced with synthetic cannabinoids. On March 29, … Continued
Cannabis Content
High Pride: Cannabis Must Be Inclusive
“I don’t think there is proportional representation as far as the industry goes. When I go to conferences, I tend to be the only gay in the village.” As a queer journalist who has spent the last few years in the cannabis space, I have often written about the importance of LGBT+ inclusion in the … Continued
We Need To Talk About Cannabis Dependency
Between the narrative that nothing natural could ever do us any real harm, and scaremongering ideas that – even if it doesn’t act as a gateway to the use of stronger substances – smoking cannabis will turn you into a lazy, paranoid and ultimately useless member of society, the space for nuanced interpretations is … Continued
Opinion: Cannabis Requires an Interdisciplinary Approach
I started working at Volteface just over a year ago now, during a bizarrely unprecedented time. What I would have liked to be a front-facing position in the advocacy space, suddenly had to be performed from my bedroom, in the gloom and isolation of lockdown hibernation. My experience stood in stark contrast to the … Continued