Press Releases
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” […]
FDPS EVP Luke Niforatos in The Colorado Springs Gazette: Exposing Colorado’s psychedelic conflicts of interest
Click here to read the full article. As Colorado develops its regulatory framework for the psychedelics industry, we now see that it is being undermined by many of the same competing interests that have taken hold of the state’s profit-driven THC drug and marijuana industry. Most recently, Kevin Matthews, the president of Denver’s Psilocybin Review […]
Tom Wolf’s Legislative Debut: AB2479 Proposes Housing Recovery Funding
April 12, 2024Tom Wolf’s inaugural legislative effort takes center stage as AB2479 is introduced in California. This proposal seeks to allocate up to 25% of housing first funding for recovery housing, a concept spearheaded by Tom through his affiliation with the Bay Area Council. This initiative can revolutionize housing and recovery support. Click here to view the […]
FISA SECTION 702 REAUTHORIZATION CRITICAL TO COMBATTING ILLICIT FENTANYL CRISIS
April 11, 2024Intelligence Gathered Through Section 702 of FISA Has Been Critical to Disrupting The Flow of Illicit Drugs (WASHINGTON, DC) – A pivotal tool in the nation’s ongoing war against illicit drugs, especially dangerous illicit fentanyl, could soon be lost to law enforcement if House lawmakers can’t unify behind reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign […]
REPEAL OF MEASURE 110 A MAJOR VICTORY FOR ALL WHO CARE ABOUT RESPONSIBLE, PRODUCTIVE DRUG POLICY
April 2, 2024Governor Kotek, Legislators Should be Praised Fixing the Public Policy Nightmare (SALEM, OR) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) President Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., a former drug policy advisor to President Obama, released the following statement after Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed bipartisan legislation to repeal the state’s controversial Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs and […]
Oxy. Heroin. Fentanyl. Everything.
March 21, 2024Jonathan Spear was 15 years old when he took hydrocodone for the first time. Doctors had prescribed the pills for his mother’s cancer. The powerful opioid filled Spear with a sense of contented bliss and eased the pain of watching his mother suffer from the disease that would take her life. Spear, now 29, eventually […]
“Oregon turned into the Wild West”: Decriminalizing drugs was an epic failure
March 20, 2024The first state to remove penalties for possession is about to become the first to re-criminalize them. Experts say we should learn from Oregon’s mistakes. “No one wants to see people with addictions in jail or prison because they’re addicted to something,” argued Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions President Dr. Kevin Sabet in a recent […]
Of all the pot options, the best keeps it illegal
March 14, 2024The first state to remove penalties for possession is about to become the first to re-criminalize them. Experts say we should learn from Oregon’s mistakes. Read the entire article HERE.
The Drug Review: Marijuana Dispensaries Sell to Thousands of Minors Every Year
March 11, 2024By Connor Kubeisy, Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions For years, advocates for the legalization of marijuana have been telling skeptical voters that dispensaries would not sell their products to minors. Their primary arguments have remained unchanged: legalizing and regulating marijuana is the only way to ensure that it will not end up in the hands of […]
Oregon lawmakers roll back nation’s most permissive drug law
March 8, 2024Fatal overdoses have skyrocketed in the Beaver State The bill undoes much of what Measure 110 legalized more than three years ago. Over 58 percent of Oregon voters approved Measure 110 in November 2020. Instead of getting booked into jail, individuals cited for possessing drugs like fentanyl or heroin could choose between paying a $100 fine or […]
Oregon’s Failure…And Next Steps
March 6, 2024February 1st marked three years since Oregon implemented Measure 110, the nation’s first experiment with the decriminalization of all drugs, including meth, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl. Measure 110 has been a demonstrable failure by nearly all measures, seeing increases in fatal overdoses, nonfatal overdoses, illicit drug use, drug-related traffic fatalities, homelessness, public drug use, crime, […]
Rep. Levy Votes Yes On Measure 110 Reform
March 4, 2024“The voters were clear when they passed Measure 110: getting people into recovery is the top priority. But, what we’ve experienced since the implementation of Measure 110 is unacceptable,” said Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Central Oregon). “HB 4002 is a comprehensive plan to address our state’s drug and addiction problem and gives our law enforcement the tools they […]
Are we ready for a psychedelic revolution? | Shayla Love, Kevin Sabet, Matthew Johnson
March 1, 2024For decades, psychedelics were derided as dangerous recreational drugs; now many claim they have the potential to revolutionise the treatment of mental health. With hundreds of clinical trials now taking place, the psychedelic therapeutic market is predicted to be over ten billion within the decade. It has been widely thought that psychedelics are effective at […]
OREGON HOUSE SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR REPEAL OF MEASURE 110
February 29, 2024Bankrolled by Billionaire Advocates, Policy Turned Out to be a Nightmare (SALEM, OR) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) President Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy advisor to President Obama, released the following statement after the Oregon House voted overwhelmingly to repeal the state’s controversial Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs and eliminated incentives to […]
The Drug Review: Oregon’s Measure 110 Has Been A Failed Policy Experiment
February 26, 2024By Connor Kubeisy, Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions February 1st marked three years since Oregon implemented Measure 110, the nation’s first experiment with the decriminalization of all drugs, including meth, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl. Measure 110 has been a demonstrable failure by nearly all measures, seeing increases in fatal overdoses, nonfatal overdoses, illicit drug use, […]
FDPS 2/9/24 Friday Fact: Surge in Hallucinogen-Related Health Emergency Department Visits
February 9, 2024A study published last month in Addiction examined trends in substance-related emergency department visits in California from 2016 to 2022: Report Highlights: The researchers explained, “these findings represent a concerning trend, especially given growing public perception that hallucinogens are low-risk and as rates of use continue to grow.”
Sabet in Newsweek: The Results Are in—Oregon’s Total Drug Decriminalization Was a FailureSabet in Newsweek:
February 5, 2024In February 2021, politicians and activists celebrated Oregon’s implementation of Measure 110, the nation’s first law to decriminalize drugs like fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and meth. It’s not a surprise what happened next: a dramatic increase in overdoses. Fast forward to last week: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of […]
FDPS 1/26/24 Friday Fact: Fatal Overdoses are Increasing, but Oregon is an Outlier due to Measure 110
January 26, 2024Report Highlights: In the span of two years, from 2020 to 2022, there has been a concerning rise in overdose deaths attributed to various drugs across several states in the western United States. The statistics, sourced from the CDC’s WONDER database, reveal a distressing trend: Oregon’s radical policy, Measure 110, which decriminalized the possession of […]
NOW LIVE: THE DRUG REPORT
November 15, 2023New Online Platform and Email Digest Provides the Latest News, Research and Commentary on the Nation’s Drug Crisis and Policy Debates Site Offers Aggregated Content from Traditional Media, Scientific Journals, Other Platforms (WASHINGTON, DC) – The nation’s leading drug policy organizations and their partners, including Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS), have launched […]
Congressional Hearing on Psychedelics Comes Baked with Industry Bias Witnesses
November 14, 2023Veterans Subcommittee Should Demand the Addiction-for-Profit Industry’s Testimony Brings True Scientific Perspective WASHINGTON, DC) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions President Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy advisor to Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton, released the following statement today in advance for the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health’s hearing on the use of […]
A Review of Coerced Treatment
October 28, 2023The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 2023 Performance Review System reported, in 2020, only 50% of state prisons and 29% of local jails offered medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), such as buprenorphine. Only 2.6% of federal inmates with opioid use disorder received MOUD. To address the revolving door between drug use and incarceration, the criminal […]
NEWSOM VETO WELCOMED, BUT MOVE WAS CALCULATED AND DOESN’T SOLVE THE LOOMING PROBLEM OF PSYCHEDELICS IN CALIFORNIA
October 12, 2023Encouraging More Drug Use, In The Midst Of An Addiction And Homelessness Crisis, Would Be A Disaster (WASHINGTON, DC) – Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions President Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy advisor to the Obama White House, released the following statement in response to Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of California Senate Bill 58, which would […]