Alternative development

A Sustainable Future for Cannabis Farmers

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:56:45 +0000

Learn how lessening the barriers for small farmers while raising them for large companies can help to steer legal cannabis markets in a more sustainable and equitable direction based on principles of ...

Position Paper of the Fair Trade Cannabis Working Group in the Caribbean

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:47:44 +0000

The Position Paper "For inclusive business models, well designed laws and fair(er) trade options for small-scale traditional cannabis farmers” produced by The Fair(er) Trade Cannabis Working Group ai ...

A World with Drugs: Legal Regulation through a Development Lens

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 19:17:04 +0000

Drugs are a development issue. Let’s stop pretending that they’re not. The so-called ‘war on drugs’ has been undermining progress towards development goals for decades. It has fuelled violence and co ...

Cannabis Regulation and Development

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 17:26:29 +0000

Significant policy shifts have led to an unprecedented boom in medical cannabis markets, while a growing number of countries are moving towards the legal regulation of adult non-medical use. This tre ...

Fair(er) Trade Options for the Cannabis Market

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:28:06 +0000

Policy changes over the past five years or so have dramatically reshaped the global cannabis market. Not only has there been an unprecedented boom in medical markets, but following policy shifts in s ...

Connecting the dots...

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 10:10:01 +0000

How can we resolve the tensions between current drug control policies and states’ human rights obligations? The international human rights framework clearly establishes that, in the event of conflict ...

Aligning Agendas

Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:30:54 +0000

In April 2016 the UN General Assembly convened a special session on the world drug problem in order to review and evaluate existing drug control policies and strategies. More specifically, the specia ...

Why coca leaf, not coffee, may always be Colombia’s favourite cash crop

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 16:25:06 +0000

Colombia’s current peace process is facing numerous challenges. In a country that has suffered the worst impacts of the international drug war, one main dilemma is this: what to do with rural regions ...

Exploring the land-drugs nexus

Thu, 06 Aug 2015 11:35:30 +0000

"For many communities in Myanmar who grow opium, for them opium is not the problem, it is the solution to their problems," said local project consultant, Tom Kramer, from the Transnational Institute. ...

Current State of Counternarcotics Policy and Policy Reform Debates in Myanmar

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 10:03:01 +0000

This paper explores the current state of counternarcotics policy and policy reform debates in Myanmar. It analyzes the main trends in drug production, trafficking, and consumption, and assesses the k ...

Conditioning Alternative Development to previous eradication should be abandoned

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 14:40:21 +0000

Conditioning Alternative Development (AD) participation to previous eradication should be abandoned as a policy, since it has proved to be counterproductive. As long as the amount of hectares eradica ...

Drugs and development: The great disconnect

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 07:59:06 +0000

This report argues that ‘drugs’ are a development issue and must be recognised as such by development agencies. The cultivation of opium poppy, coca leaf and cannabis for anything other than medical ...

Bouncing Back

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 00:05:11 +0000

TNI's indepth examination of the illegal drug market in the Golden Triangle, which has witnessed a doubling of opium production, growing prison populations and repression of small-scale farmers. This ...

First Southeast Asia Opium Farmers Forum

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:29:14 +0000

In July 2013 TNI and Paung Ku organised the First Southeast Asia Opium Farmers Forum, bringing together some 30 representatives of local communities involved in opium cultivation and local community ...

Drugs as war economy and the peace process in Colombia: dilemmas and challenges

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:16:44 +0000

The fourth item on the agenda of talks “to end the conflict,” on the issue of drugs, seems to reflect rather a flat and simplistic view of the classic circuit of drug production, processing, traffick ...

The illicit drugs market in the Colombian agrarian context

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:23:16 +0000

The distribution of land and its unjust use are the major causes of violence in Colombia. For this reason land issues are the starting point of current peace talks between the Santos government and t ...

Between Reality and Abstraction

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:24:38 +0000

At the International Conference on Alternative Development (ICAD), held 15-16 November 2012 in Lima, the Peruvian Government continued to insist on the relevance of “Alternative Development (AD),” w ...

UN International Guiding Principles on Alternative Development: Part II

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:36:27 +0000

The International Guiding Principles on Alternative Development approved last week at an international meeting in Lima, Peru, represents a lost opportunity to promote equitable economic development i ...

An opportunity lost

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:20:56 +0000

At the International Conference on Alternative Development (ICAD), held in Lima from 14 to 16 November, the Peruvian Government supported by the UNODC claimed that currently in Peru the surface plant ...

Valencia Declaration on Alternative Development

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:57:53 +0000

Producers of crops declared illicit, such as opium, coca and cannabis, from throughout the world convened at the Observatory of Crops Declared Illicit (OCDI) in Valencia (Spain) on November 9-10, 201 ...