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Among the many discussions built around drug policy reform, YouthRISE had the opportunity to participate in the Rome Consensus 2.0 Summit, held in Rome, Italy, from May 2nd to May 5th.  The Rome Consensus 2.0 Summit represents a crucial milestone in the pursuit of humanitarian drug policy reform, one that respects the rights of individuals…

Written by André Gomes, Youth RISE’s International Working Group member and Communications Coordinator & Editor of TalkingDrugs and Release. Returning from the 23rd iteration of Harm Reduction International’s global conference felt like waking up from a dream. In the dozens of hours travelling back from H23, which took place in Melbourne and was paused since…

Written by Rebeca Calzada and Rebeca Marques Rocha At the end of April, civil society organisations, collectives and human rights activists in Mexico reported the shortage of methadone in the country, urging the federal government to support the provision of the medication in public and private clinics.  Methadone is a synthetic drug used in opioid…

Written by Manuela Memi Breaking Convention is an international conference held every two years in the UK that focuses on psychedelic consciousness, bringing together people from the field of psychedelic research, activism, art, and harm reduction, this time at the University of Exeter. It is the counterpart of the corporate psychedelic conferences in the American…

Why the Death Penalty for Drug-Related Offences Must Be Abolished Image credits: Austen Leake/AP This op-ed was written by Rebeca Marques Rocha and reviewed by Ruby Lawlor in response to the execution of Tangaraju Suppiah (Appu). The death penalty has been discussed worldwide, with the public debate grappling with the morality and efficacy of this…

4Youth, the global youth consortium, meets to reflect on successes, challenges, lessons learned and to plan for the coming years  For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional and global networks of young key populations and people living with HIV, the global youth consortium under the Robert Carr Fund, met in…

Statement on the occasion of World Health Day, April 7th Written by Rebeca Marques Rocha The most recent data from the World Bank and the World Health Organization indicate that at least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services. Currently, over 930 million people spend at least 10%…

Written by: Marialba Quesada Exploring and learning from the environment is part of our lives from an early age. We continue this path of human formation by learning from the people, words, objects and ideas that surround us, until we begin to question violent actions that are normalized in the world, such as why we…