Press Releases
Sabet: B.C. must recalibrate its drug policy priorities
October 3, 2024Opinion: Mandated care ensures that people remain in treatment and don’t drop out, which is consistently shown to be one of the best predictors of a successful outcome In a remarkable turn of events, B.C. Premier David Eby announced last month that the government will support 400 or more beds — the term $1 billion […]
California needs Prop. 36 to help bring accountability to the fentanyl crisis
September 19, 2024Proposition 36 qualified for the November ballot in California with over 900,000 signatures. Simply put, this ballot initiative will reform aspects of Proposition 47 that in 2014 reclassified several “quality of life” crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The most obvious was shoplifting — where the threshold for misdemeanor theft was raised to $950 per offense — and drug possession. […]
B.C. mayors demand federal funding for involuntary care, bail reforms, port crackdown
September 16, 2024A coalition of elected officials from across British Columbia gathered Monday to demand “urgent action” from the federal government on issues of public safety, mental health and drug addictions – including funding for the province’s planned expansion of involuntary care(opens in a new tab). Speaking outside Vancouver city hall, the group also reiterated calls for further […]
Several BC mayors form coalition over “broken” addictions and public safety systems
Nearly two weeks after brutal attacks left one person dead and another with a severed hand, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is among the municipal leaders speaking out, asking for action from the federal government on safety and other issues through a new coalition. Sim addressed reporters on Monday morning, condemning the current state of public […]
STATEMENT FROM FDPS & PROSPER SUPPORTING FEDERAL ACTION TO ADDRESS THE MENTAL HEALTH & ADDICTION CRISIS AFFECTING BRITISH COLUMBIA
(VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA) – Today, Dr. Kevin Sabet will join Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, and First Nations leaders, public health experts, and law enforcement officials and mayors from across British Columbia to demand urgent action from the federal government to tackle the public safety and the mental health and addictions crisis affecting Vancouver and municipalities throughout […]
SUICIDE PREVENTION STARTS WITH BEING HONEST ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TODAY’S ADDICTION-FOR-PROFIT INDUSTRY
September 10, 2024Marijuana, Psychedelics, Other Drugs Fuel Suicide Rates Across the U.S. (WASHINGTON, DC) – As the nation gathers to spread a powerful reminder that nearly 50,000 Americans die by suicide annually, making it 11th leading cause of death, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) President and CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet is using National Suicide Prevention Week […]
NATIONAL RECOVERY MONTH A CHANCE TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION AROUND AMERICA’S DRUG CRISIS
September 4, 2024One in Ten U.S. Adults are in Remission from a Substance Use Disorder (WASHINGTON, DC) – National Recovery Month is a time for public health officials, medical professionals, and lawmakers to come together and have a transformative impact on the health and mental health of millions of American’s suffering from substance use disorder. During this […]
ON INTERNATIONAL OVERDOSE AWARENESS DAY AS WE MOURN THE LIVES LOST, PRIORITIZE TREATMENT AND RECOVERY
August 31, 2024(WASHINGTON, DC) – As the people around the world come together to spread a message of remembrance for those who have died from overdoses and acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind, the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) celebrates International Overdose Awareness Day (August 31) by spreading a message promoting a broader range of prevention, treatment, recovery and critical […]
DRUG POLICY PLATFORMS FROM BOTH PARTIES GET THE BASICS RIGHT, REJECT LEGALIZATION
August 20, 2024Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions Expresses General Support for RNC, DNC On Drugs, But Much More Must Be Done (WASHINGTON, DC) – With both the Republican and Democrat party platforms now adopted without strong language to combat drug proliferation, the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) is calling on both presidential campaigns to prioritize ending the nation’s drug and […]
FDA rejects psychedelic drug as treatment for PTSD
August 15, 2024According to DC News, the FDA held an advisory panel in June that discouraged approval, saying that the treatment has yet to be proven effective. President and CEO of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions Dr. Kevin Sabet commented, “If you actually look at the science, this isn’t surprising at all,” adding that the FDA made […]
FDA FOLLOWS SCIENCE WITH REJECTION OF MDMA
August 9, 2024Following Clinical Trial Plagued with Safety, Efficacy Failures, FDA Wisely Rejects Ecstasy-based Drug (WASHINGTON, DC) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions President Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former three-time White House drug policy advisor, released the following statement today in response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejecting an ecstasy-based drug, also known as MDMA, as […]
PERSPECTIVE: Big Tobacco is back
August 5, 2024“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds… We knew the world would not be the same… A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.” These words, shared by the late J. Robert Oppenheimer describing the sentiment of his team of scientists when watching the first successful detonation of a […]
Sabet in Newsweek: ‘Safe Supply’ Won’t Stop the Drug Overdose Crisis
July 26, 2024Earlier this month, Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, attempted to make her province even more of an outlier than it already was in its response to the unprecedented drug crisis. Recognizing that prior harm reduction interventions had failed to bend the curve of the drug crisis, she submitted a report that recommended that British […]
OPED: Aurora’s embrace of Phillip Morris comes with significant costs
July 23, 2024Why does Denver get investment from technology companies, AI, healthcare, and beyond, and Aurora is given the vice industries? At an event that hearkened back to Big Tobacco’s 1950s heyday, Gov. Jared Polis, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, and other city and state officials and tobacco industry leaders toasted the announcement that Phillip Morris will be […]
SABET: BC PROVINCIAL HEALTH REPORT MORE ALICE IN WONDERLAND THAN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
July 13, 2024Provincial Health Officer’s Assertions Is Pro-Drug Propaganda (VANCOUVER, BC) – Following the release of a pro-drug propaganda missive title “Alternative to Unregulated Drugs” by the British Columbia Office of the Provincial Health Officer, Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS)President Dr. Kevin Sabet, an international drug policy expert and former three-time U.S. White presidential drug policy advisor, along […]
PARTY PLATFORMS MUST COMBAT THE NATION’S MOUNTING DRUG CRISIS
July 8, 2024Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions Urges RNC, DNC to Commit to Combating Harmful Drug Access and Addiction in Party Platforms (WASHINGTON, DC) – With Republican and Democratic national conventions just weeks away, the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) is calling on both parties to commit in their respective platforms to combatting the nation’s drug crisis. With more […]
PROGRESS BEING MADE, BUT GREATER GLOBAL COOPERATION REQUIRED TO COMBAT ILLICIT DRUG USE
June 26, 2024June 26 is International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Nations Urged to Embrace Treatment, Prevention, Not Harm Reduction (WASHINGTON, DC) – Despite an onslaught of misinformation and propaganda from pro-drug activists around the world, people are standing up and saying we want safer communities free from dangerous, illicit drugs. That’s the message being shared […]
ILLINOIS WISELY PUTS THE BRAKES ON UNTESTED DRUG POLICY
May 30, 2024Addiction Profiteers Suffer Setback In Quest to Bring More Drugs Into Illinois’ Communities (SPRINGFIELD, IL) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) President Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy advisor to Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, released the following statement today in response to the defeat of the Illinois CURE Act (SB3695), which will […]
FDPS Friday Fact 05/24/2024: Rate of U.S. Children Who Lost a Parent to a Drug Overdose per 100,000 Children, 2011-2021, by Race
May 24, 2024A recent study in JAMA Psychiatry titled, “Estimated Number of Children Who Lost a Parent to Drug Overdose in the US From 2011 to 2021” estimated that 321,566 children lost a parent to a drug overdose. The study estimated annual rates of children, by race, who lost a parent to a drug overdose from […]
Tom Wolf in NewsNation: San Francisco gives alcohol to help treat homeless people struggling with addiction
Read the full article here. “Tom Wolf, recovery advocate director at West Coast Initiatives Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, told NewsNation the city should put its efforts into promoting recovery, not maintaining people’s addictions.”
BRITISH COLUMBIA REPEALS DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION, HIGHLIGHTING THE PITFALLS OF LAX DRUG POLICY
May 8, 2024VANCOUVER, BC) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) and PROSPER President Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., a Vancouver resident and former White House drug policy advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, released the following statement today in response to the abrupt announcement that British Columbia has reversed course on its dangerous experiment decriminalizing the possession of illicit drugs: “Given the […]
Tom Wolf in The Voice of San Francisco: SCOTUS must overturn Johnson v. Grants Pass
May 7, 2024Read the full article here. On April 22, the Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the Johnson v. Grants Pass case, and they will decide sometime this summer whether it’s cruel and unusual punishment to remove the homeless from public spaces. Proponents argue that removing a homeless encampment from a public space violates eighth […]
FDPS President and CEO Dr. Kevin A. Sabet in The National Post: The harm-reduction movement has lost sight of what truly matters
April 29, 2024Click here to read the full article. Earlier this year, the federal government delayed an extension of medical assistance in dying (MAID) to include those suffering solely from mental illness, which could have included people with substance use disorder. At the same time, British Columbia’s provincial officer of health called for the province’s “safe supply” […]