http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/alex-wodak/ Dr Alex Wodak has been Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, St. Vincents Hospital, Sydney, Australia since 1982. Dr. Wodak is President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and was President of the International Harm Reduction Association (1996-2004). He helped establish the first needle syringe programme and the first medically supervised injecting centre in Australia (when both were pre-legal) and often works in developing countries on HIV control among injecting drug users. en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ten-things-you-should-know-about-drug-prohibition1/ 1. Drug prohibition doesn’t work. During the last half century, almost every country in the world signed three United Nations drug treaties committing these countries to minimise the recreational use of specified drugs. Almost every country expanded their police drug squads, rained gold bars on drug law enforcement and kept on increasing the severity of penalties for drug offences. What was the result? Global heroin, cocaine and cannabis production and consumption continued to soar while world heroin production doubled in the last 10 years. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alex Wodak) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ten-things-you-should-know-about-drug-prohibition1/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ten-things-you-should-know-about-drug-prohibition1/#item384 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:35:13 +0000 Alex Wodak | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/futile-fighting-a-war-on-drugs/ Supporters of the ‘War on Drugs’ love to quote former drug users who have now become avid supporters of drug prohibition. But it is just as easy to find former drug users who have now become unambiguous critics of the ‘War on Drugs’. One of these is now the President of the USA. President Obama said in the US Senate that the ‘War on Drugs is an utter failure’.  Opinion on drug policy is clearly changing around the world. On May 14, the new US Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, called for an end to the ‘War on Drugs’ in an interview in the Wall Street Journal. The limited benefits, high costs and serious unintended consequences of the ‘War on Drugs’ are now being increasingly recognised. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Alex Wodak) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/futile-fighting-a-war-on-drugs/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/futile-fighting-a-war-on-drugs/#item231 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:50:13 +0000 Alex Wodak | Author bios | The Punch