SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 20/06/2025'Making a drug class A will deter use & help keep communities safe' A familiar Government narrative - but true or false? Cocaine has been class A for 60 years - hows that worked out? Here's a graph showing the 100x increase in cocaine-related deaths over the last 30 years 1/ 170
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Notably use of these 'intoxicating hemp' products is twice as high in cannabis US prohibition states than in regulated cannabis states. It is clear that the market opportunity for these products is created by the farm bill loophole combined with cannabis prohibition 5/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Fascinating session at @CannRegulators assoc conference on novel & new cannabinoids - including an 'alphabet soup' of new semi-synthetic cannabinoids such as Delta8 & HHC nominally legalised in the US by the 2019 Farm bill & widely sold, largely unregulated, across the US 1/🧵 131
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/06/2025And finally on Thursday afternoon, before I head home, I'm sharing insights on EU policy developments at the International Cannabis Bar Association @theINCBA cannabis law institute 5/🧵 010
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Im on a panel on regulating high potency cannabis products, but the wider event is a great opportunity to connect with many regulatory pioneers & learn about what's working (& what's not), how emerging challenges are being tackled and share analysis from Europe 3/🧵 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/06/2025I'm in Denver, Colorado this week for a triple whammy of cannabis policy events.... Quick thread (discussion on policy to follow as they come up....) 1/🧵 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Looking forward to reading 'Psychedelic Capitalism' by Jamie Brownlee & Kevin Walby, which just arrived on my doormat It explores the renaissance 'in the context of corporate capture, medicalization, and the war on drugs' See this Talkingdrugs blog for an overview👇 t.co/XxwX2P6xWq 150
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 13/05/2025Essentially the same question regards clean needle & syringe provision By what logic do you think it sensible to: 1. Acknowledge the reality of use 2. Provide NSP to facilitate safer use 3. Then send service users to use unregulated/adulterated street drugs bought from organised crime groups? 020
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 12/05/2025The finding that 'Public health-oriented recreational cannabis access may decrease cannabis use and cannabis-related harms, especially among those using other drugs' ...has emerged from a unique experiment with legal regulation taking place in Switzerland 2/ 150
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 09/05/2025Short clip from the Psychedelic Mom podcast I appeared on late last year *With apologies to moron eye-forkers 210
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 16/04/2025I'm looking forward to speaking at the always-weird-and-wonderful Breaking Convention conference in Exeter on Friday. It's for a symposium on psychedelics within the wider drug policy ecosystem(from 15.00) with @wudzee.bsky.social @caralavan.bsky.social Shoba Ram and @zoegarbett.bsky.social 1/ 293
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025But if this was an unexpectedly (for the Mail) balanced and reasonable feature - the comments section is a very different story; 100s of depressingly cruel and ignorant comments wishing death on vulnerable people struggling with addictions 11/ 🧵 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025Look at NCA social media feeds; They're full of drug seizures & arrests Ask how seizures/arrests impact on availability, or what indicators are used to assess the impacts of 'smashing drug gangs' on overdose risks, & you're met with silence No such assessments exist (for obvious reasons) 10/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025The NCA makes a welcome mention of public health & naloxone (tho, like the minister, doesnt seem able to use the words 'harm reduction') But the emphasis is mostly on interdiction & enforcement, despite overwhelming evidence this can never 'stem the supply' of nitazenes, and may be fuelling it 9/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025the quote from drugs minister @DianaJohnsonMP is disappointing - not even mentioning harm reduction Treatment/prevention are important, but are part of a medium/long term strategy. Dealing with the immediate threat demands a comprehensive, funded public health-led harm reduction strategy 8/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025My final point was the urgent need for a comprehensive preparedness strategy -to prevent a US style OD-crisis. I specifically flagged increasing availability of naloxone, and a national roll out of drug checking & supervised consumption services. 6/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025I was also pleased to make the point that its is the lack of market regulation (that flows directly from the enforcement paradigm) that leads to the deadly risks of mis-selling and adulteration with high risk synthetic opioids 4/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025Secondly - the fact that there really is no supply-side enforcement solution to the nitazene threat Indeed, enforcement has been part of the problem, creating incentives for OCGs to tilt the market towards more potent synthetic opioids that are more easily produced and trafficked 3/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 15/04/2025I had a long interview for it and was surprised/glad to see most of my key points included: firstly - the seriousness of the nitazene threat - and the inadequacy of the UK Government response (both previous and current governments) 2/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/03/2025will no doubt return to the US chaos as the week progresses.... 040
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 10/03/2025UN CND day 1 THREAD🧵 I'm representing @Transformdrugs at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna this week #CND68. Watch this CND primer video from @IDPCnet www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAJ3... Ill be live-posting as much as possible, here & on X(sorry) @stevetransform 1/ 3126
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 26/02/2025These pilot projects are growing out of last year's groundbreaking international conferences on regulation, in Amsterdam transformdrugs.org/blog/cities-... & Warsaw transformdrugs.org/blog/cities-... hosted by the Mayor in collaboration with Transform & other partners 2/ 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 26/02/2025Heading back to London this morning after a productive couple of days in Amsterdam - working with Mayor Halsema's team on a series of pilot projects to move the regulation debate forward in the city, nationally and internationally 1/ 210
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 14/02/2025A key point I tried to make in my comments was that whatever the risks are, prohibition makes them worse and creates obstacles to risk mitigation. 2/ 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 14/02/2025I'm quoted in this Salon piece, that takes its cue from new Canadian research to explore the complex and contentious links between cannabis use and psychotic illness 1/ t.co/hnConXK94r 113
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 13/02/2025It's just weird to read polling questions clearly about decriminalisation reported as results about legalisation (which they aren't) - even in the same graphic, as below. @oliver_wright - if you're reading this, please correct it. It's kind spoils a good piece. V.happy to help🤓 11/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 13/02/2025Interestingly, the growing support for decrim is occurring at the same time as (according to this poll anyway) falling interest in actually using the drugs over the same period. 5/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 13/02/2025There is a clear increase in support for decriminalisation* of cannabis, MDMA & cocaine over the last 20yrs *NOT legalisation @oliver_wright, which they were not asked about 3/🧵 100
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 12/02/2025I'm doing a talk this evening at UCL with Clemmie James from @healthpoverty.bsky.social and the Coalition for Drug policy Reform and Environmental Justice. Please join if you're in town. 1/ 182
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 05/02/2025Also unmentioned in the UNODC report are any of the repeated high profile calls from the UN's lead human rights agency, @OHCHR, to reform drug policy (inc decrim) due to its impact on prison overcrowding See for example this 2023 report👇 ohchr.org/en/documents/t… 🧵6/ 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 05/02/2025The 2019 UN System Common Position on Drugs, agreed by all 31 UN agencies (inc. WHO, UNODC, UNICEF, OHCHR etc), specifically recommends decriminalisation of drug possession 'to address prison overcrowding' Here It is (UNODC branded, on the UNODC site) 👇 www.unodc.org/unodc/en/un-... 🧵4/ 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 05/02/2025It's astonishing to read this report on prison overcrowding from the UN Office on Drugs & Crime, & find *absolutely nothing* on the contribution of punitive drug enforcement (overseen globally by @UNODC) in fuelling the crisis THREAD 🧵 1/ 1123
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 28/12/2024Incredible misty sunset on Skirrid (Ysgyryd Fawr) in the beautiful Black Mountains in Wales. 1/ 180
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 21/12/2024It's a useful insight on this latest (inevitable) darwinian mutation of the drug markets - by Matha Busby. My quote is predictable enough - but needs to be said. Prohibitionist drug laws will never defeat the laws of supply and demand. 2/ 021
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 14/12/2024I saw his new documentary a couple of weeks back (I blagged a BAFTA +1). Elton & Davod Furnish did a Q&A after I'm no mega fan, but it's a fascinating watch, with some incredible archive moments Good tunes can make me forgive a lot. But please don't support the drug war again 😘 4/4 010
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 14/12/2024It's odd because he's actually been amazingly supportive of harm reduction for years - mostly in the context of the HIV response, but he totally gets decrim/harm reduction which he's spoken on often But this quote has notably been pounced upon by the usual suspect harm reduction opponents 🤢 2/ 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 04/12/2024I'm at the @EHRNorg harm reduction conference in Warsaw today - Plenary panel; 'Think Global, Act Local; the role of cities in innovating drug policy and practice' Inc. mayor's of Amsterdam & Brussels, & @Carlybag from Bristol. Streamed live here👇 1/ www.harmreductionconference.eu/index.php/st... 173
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 30/11/2024Enjoyed a good ol' rant on the new *Psychedelic Mom* podcast episode, discussing Transform's work on psychedelic risks/benefits, & how to regulate adult access for the vast majority of psychedelic use *which is non-medical*..... Links below👇 190
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 19/11/2024These forums provide a unique & invaluable opportunity to both share emerging knowledge on best practice in cannabis regulation, as well as strategize on collective action to progress reform in EU & UN institutions 4/ 120
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 19/11/2024This is the third such ministerial forum on cannabis policy - the first taking place in Luxembourg in 2022, and last year in Malta (also attended by Transform 👇) 3/ 110
SteveRolles @steverolles.bsky.social · 19/11/2024The ministerial exchange was hosted this year by the German Govt, with ministerial representation from 'like minded states' progressing cannabis regulation; Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Czechia, & Switzerland, along with the EU DrugsAgency, Transnational Institute, & Transform 2/ 120