New: Worldwide Psychedelic Laws Tracker
Starting with the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and followed by the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, international barriers to national-level drug policy reform were raised higher and higher. In recent years however, this UN drug control system has started to crumble in response to changing social and political views, starting with the legalisation of cannabis in several countries, and the removal of criminal sanctions for drug use in others. More and more countries are now reforming their drug laws, and the UN Chief Executives Board, which represents the heads of 31 UN agencies, has called for the “decriminalization of drug possession for personal use” and “changes in laws, policies and practices that threaten the health and human rights of people”.
In our latest resource, we track these changes and the status of drug policy reform efforts across the globe, with a focus on psychedelics. The precise effect of these changes are varied: some involve decriminalizing possession and personal use of psychedelics (such as in Portugal), others allowing access to psychedelics for medicinal uses (such as in Canada), while a few are legalizing possession, use, cultivation and sale of specific psychedelics (such as in Jamaica).
An important note—we’re neither lawyers nor residents in these countries, and our information is only as good as our interpretation of the materials we reviewed. If you believe or know otherwise for any jurisdiction, we invite you to reach out to us at policy@psychedelicalpha.com. To read more about the history of psychedelic use, and how it has been impacted by the changes in drug policy, please see our background article. |
