When otherwise polarised groups are shown to agree on some political measure, the smart politician takes note. To that end, the magic mushroom story du jour should make for particularly interesting reading in Westminster. It transpires that, whichever way you segment the population of the UK – by age group, gender, region, referendum vote … Continued
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons recently released their report, ‘The future of UK music festivals’. The report’s official recommendations describe the necessity of the legal recognition and expansion of drug-checking services, outlining several positive key steps toward the development of a “dedicated legal framework for drug checking … Continued
Volteface is delighted to welcome Tara O’Reilly as Head of Public Affairs to the team. Tara brings an exceptional amount of experience from her variety of roles in Westminster: from working closely with Sadiq Khan during his successful 2016 mayoral campaign to managing an influential lobby of over 90 MP’s in parliament. Tara will be focused … Continued
Pioneering psychedelic research, by Amanda Feilding We are living through a mental health crisis. Existing treatments barely scratch the surface of the problem, and have not translated into real world benefit for a huge number of people. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide now live with a mental disorder, with depression affecting an estimated … Continued
Michael Wakelyn-Green is a Drug Policy Campaigner, Drug & Alcohol Recovery Specialist, and South East Ambassador for the LCDPR. With Lockdown ending mid-June (fingers-crossed), it means many UK festivals will occur this summer. Almost instantly following the news, tickets for the largest festivals in the UK sold-out (I know this because I tried to … Continued
This year the Maltese government announced that reforms would take place to permit the personal cultivation of up to 4 cannabis plants. This Thursday (22nd of April) ECAN are holding an event with reLeaf to discuss human rights, cannabis consumption and cultivation, and this exciting prospect of national policy reform in Malta. “The publication of … Continued
There is no doubt that psychedelics hold incredible healing potential to treat mental illnesses. Their ability is so great, claims circulate that they can ‘cure’ conditions, a term almost unheard of in psychiatry. The psychedelic movement has highlighted the vast benefits of these currently controlled substances, helping to liberalise and destigmatise them. It has … Continued
This piece was originally published for Insite Malta. With the government publishing a white paper proposing a decriminalised framework for responsible cannabis use on March 30, Malta is finally discussing an issue which has long been around. Cannabis reform has been a difficult field to navigate in Malta with current laws doing little to … Continued
Drug policy is a complex sphere to navigate for a whole host of reasons. The most important and difficult being that drug use is perceived to be a moral issue. It is obvious that policies based on morals rather than science are inherently problematic as biases and emotional reasoning cloud our ability to think … Continued
New York has officially legalised adult-use cannabis, becoming the 16th state in the USA to do so. It is predicted to be the largest market on the East Coast generating $2.5 billion in annual sales by its fourth year and approximately $300 million collected in tax revenue. New Yorkers can now possess up to … Continued