Newsletter Tag: July 2025

    State-Level Marijuana Reform: Lessons Learned and Ongoing Challenges

    This report reviews nearly three decades of marijuana policy reform in the United States, beginning with the legalization of medical cannabis in California in1996 and extending to widespread state-level legalization and decriminalization. Drawing on focus group insights, it highlights outcomes such as reduced criminalization, increased access to regulated cannabis products, and shifting public attitudes toward legalization, alongside ongoing challenges and unintended consequences. The findings emphasize the need for marijuana policies that address public health and safety, prioritize criminal justice reform, strengthen regulatory oversight, expand research and data collection, and ensure sustained advocacy and policymaker engagement.

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      No Fix Without Us

      This report outlines essential actions for sustaining the HIV response among people who use drugs (PWUD). It calls for integration of harm reduction services into health systems, inclusion in universal health coverage, legal protections for confidentiality, and elimination of discrimination. The report highlights the need for dedicated and transparent financing, including domestic and donor support, and for the meaningful involvement of community-led organizations in policy development, service delivery, and monitoring. It also emphasizes the importance of incorporating these elements into national sustainability roadmaps and the next Global AIDS Strategy to support long-term, inclusive HIV responses.

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        Reform Reversed: How Drug Policy Has Changed in Three States

        This report examines recent shifts in United States drug policy at state and local levels. It documents how some jurisdictions have expanded harm reduction, decriminalization, and treatment services, while others have returned to punitive approaches. Case studies include Oregon’s reversal of drug decriminalization, San Francisco’s new drug-testing requirements for public assistance recipients, and Louisiana’s law classifying fentanyl distribution causing injury as felony homicide. The report highlights the complex social, economic, and political factors shaping drug policy and underscores the need for ongoing data collection, community engagement, and cross-sector approaches to address addiction, overdose, and public health.

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          2025 Global AIDS Update — AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform

          This executive summary reports a historic funding crisis that threatens to reverse decades of progress in the HIV response. It notes that new HIV infections fell 40% and AIDS-related deaths 56% since 2010, with 32 million people on treatment by 2024. However, sudden reductions in international financing—including major cuts to PEPFAR—risk causing 6 million additional infections and 4 million more AIDS deaths by 2029. The summary also highlights emerging long‑acting prevention tools, such as injectable PrEP, and calls for urgent solidarity, domestic investment, and strengthened community-driven responses to sustain gains and aim for ending AIDS by 2030.

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            World Drug Report 2025

            The 2025 World Drug Report presents the latest data on global drug production, trafficking, and consumption, alongside policy developments and emerging challenges. It highlights increased synthetic drug production, rising overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids, and continuing gaps in access to controlled medicines for medical care and pain relief. The report notes the role of organized crime in drug economies and addresses the environmental impacts of illicit drug production, along with other related challenges.

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