Following my essay in this week’s Sydney Morning Herald about the need to legalise and regulate all drugs, the paper publishes three letters in response: I agree with Antony Loewenstein (‘‘Legal drugs will make us safer’’, July 8). The fact that drug manufacture and supply is left to criminals does not make sense and is…
Showing all posts tagged war on drugs
Legalising and regulating all drugs is the solution
My essay appears in this week’s Sydney Morning Herald: The only way to ensure a safer Australian society is to legalise and regulate all drugs. This could save lives, earn huge revenue for the state and diminish the power of criminal gangs that make billions of dollars annually from the production and sale of illicit…
My forthcoming book: Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs
After 4+ years of global investigation, my new book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, will be released in September in Australia, November in the US and January in the UK. Translated editions will come later. It features my reporting from Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, the Philippines, the US, UK and Australia and…
Deep into the narco war; how Guinea-Bissau fits into the trade
Guinea-Bissau in West Africa is a key cocaine transit country between South America and Europe. I visited for my forthcoming book on the drug war, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs. The new podcast by Washington Post columnist and political scientist, Dr Brian Klass, is called Power Corrupts and one episode…
How Washington has created chaos in Honduras
Honduras is a key nation in the US-backed “war on drugs”. I visited there to report on what this meant for civilians, many of whom flee in fear to the US. Here’s my story in the new US outlet, Filter, covering drugs domestically and globally, on the grin reality in Honduras and why so many…
Interviewing UK journalist Johann Hari on antidepressants and alternatives
During the recent Sydney Writer’s Festival, I interviewed best-selling, British journalist Johann Hari about his new book, Lost Connections, on depression and solutions to it. ABC TV Australia aired portions of the event.
Disaster Capitalism and the drug war in north-east Britain
I was recently in the UK researching the “war on drugs” for my forthcoming book, out in 2019, on the global drug war. While I was there my film Disaster Capitalism screened in Newcastle in the north-east of the country. Sponsored by the great group, Recovering Justice, there was a full house to watch the…
What Duterte's brutal drug war looks like in the Philippines
My investigation in Foreign Policy: MANILA, Philippines — The murdered man lay in a pool of his own blood. At around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, two men on motorcycles shot Manny “Buddy” Wagan outside his small shop selling junk metal just outside Manila. He was killed instantly with two bullets to the head. A…
How the Philippines has been transformed by its war on drugs
My… story in Australian magazine Crikey: President Rodrigo Duterte has maintained a firm grip on the Philippines since being elected in July 2016. Although public support is slipping, due partly to the brutality unleashed by his “war on drugs”, which has seen up to 20,000 people killed in 18 months, the general population still backs the…
Bitcoin Uncensored about the global "war on drugs"
I’m currently working on a new, investigative book on the global “war on drugs” covering vast parts of the world consumed by the drug war (from Honduras to West Africa). It’ll be published by Scribe in Australia, the UK and beyond in 2019. This week I was interviewed by the US podcast, Bitcoin Uncensored, on…