Newsletter Tag: November 2025

This article from Intersecção – Política de Drogas, Uso da terra e Justiça Climática analyzes the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of prohibiting coca and cocaine production in the Amazon Basin and Brazil. It identifies drug prohibition as a contributing factor to deforestation, armed violence, and human rights violations, linking these to broader climate and territorial justice concerns. The findings underscore the need to integrate drug policy reform and ecological harm reduction into climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

This analysis documents 19 U.S. military strikes on civilian vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific between September and November 2025, resulting in at least 76 deaths. Evidence indicates that these operations lack legal authorization and have no measurable impact on drug supply or organized crime. The findings highlight declining overdose deaths in the United States due to public health measures and underscore the limits and risks of militarized drug control strategies.

This briefing provides updates to key data from Harm Reduction International’s flagship report, The Global State of Harm Reduction. The full report is published every two years, with updates to key data released in between editions of the report. This update also summarises key developments in harm reduction services, funding and drug policy since the launch of the ninth edition of the report in November 2024.

The 2025 funding crisis has thrown the AIDS response into turmoil with massive disruptions to HIV prevention and community led services, particularly for the most vulnerable. However, the new report by UNAIDS shows evidence that resilience, investment and innovation combined with global solidarity still offer a path to end AIDS.

The report highlights how the New Zealand government spends money now responding to illegal drugs, and contrasts this against community views. This research highlights that there is strong community support for greater investment in a health-based approach. This includes treatment, prevention, and harm reduction. This report makes four recommendations to improve drug policy in New Zealand, in ways that are consistent with community views. This presents an opportunity for our politicians to follow the evidence and move towards a health-based approach to drugs. Crucially, this research shows they would be supported by the community in doing so.

In 2021, OnPoint NYC opened the first two government-sanctioned Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs) in the United States. Now in year two, we have continued to save lives and support wellness through connections to care – while deepening relationships and providing more effective support to our community. Learn more about our second year of operations, our impact, and efforts to save lives.