This edition of the Volteface podcast is audio recorded from the launch of our most recently released report ‘Making the Grade’, written in partnership with Mentor. In a change from the regular format, this feature is a panelled discussion focussing on drug education in schools. We hear from an ex-PRU student, a PRU headteacher, … Continued

  On this month’s edition of the Volteface Podcast, Paul catches up with Volteface board member Sunny Hundal. Sunny has been a journalist and commentator on politics and current affairs for more than 15 years. As a commentator, he has been a columnist at The Guardian, Independent, Hindustan Times (India) and Labour List. This feature … Continued

  This month on the Volteface Podcast, our Director of Policy Lizzie McCulloch catches up with Oxford University PhD student, and Co-Founder of entOURage Network, Jessica Steinberg. Liz & Jessica discuss women’s experience of regulated markets, both from the perspective of consumers, professionals and entrepreneurs, before honing in on what is like to be a female cannabis … Continued

  Volteface has today released its most recent report titled ‘Making the Grade: School prevention, identification and responses to drug-related harm’, written in partnership with the UK‘s leading prevention charity, Mentor. The report considers how the UK’s education system responds to drugs by examining the approaches taken to preventing, identifying and responding to illegal drug use and … Continued

  Sunday, April 14th Volteface would like to clarify comments made in various news outlets today. It has been incorrectly reported that the recently launched initiative, ‘Carly’s Amnesty’, is a Volteface campaign. ‘Carly’s Amnesty’, is actually being supported by the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, under the leadership of Steve Moore, and is not attached to Volteface. … Continued

  Despite the chaos of Brexit, Westminster support for drug consumption rooms has hit an all time high and, for the first time, the call for reform has come from a centre right think tank, the Adam Smith Institute. Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) operate in 60 cities worldwide and act as professionally supervised healthcare facilities … Continued

  This month sees the reclassification of prescription drugs gabapentin and pregabalin into Class C of the Misuse of Drugs Act. The tightening of regulations around these drugs comes in response to concern over the increased death rate associated with the medication, 190 deaths were recorded in England and Wales alone in 2017, compared with … Continued

  In a landmark move for harm reduction, the drug treatment charity Addaction has announced that it has opened the UK’s first drug safety checking facility licensed by the Home Office. The facility opened on Friday 22nd February and is being run in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire and The Loop. Since 2016, drug … Continued

  We are delighted to announce that for Volteface’s next research project we will be partnering with the leading drug education charity Mentor. The project will be examining how effectively the education system is protecting young people who are using drugs, or at risk of using drugs and those who are being exploited, or at risk … Continued

It is clear from numerous reports that drug education in the UK is not up to scratch. Children are supposed to be learning about drugs and alcohol in a subject called Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE), but currently there is a vague curriculum with lots of freedom given to schools. This means that … Continued

Last month, London played host to one of the biggest European cannabis business events of the year. In the spacious loft of the Old Truman Brewery just off Brick Lane in east London, CannaTech felt like another world. CannaTech, an Israel-based business conference run by iCan, aims to drive the development of the nascent medical cannabis … Continued

  A new, comprehensive guide has emerged from Working the Doors providing a macro-look at drugs and drug taking. Rather than beating the tired ‘zero tolerance’ drum echoed from many corners of night-time security (which refuses to acknowledge that drug taking in public spaces, such as nightclubs, DOES exist), Steve Johnson recognises the issues in this … Continued