Cartel leaders assassinated. Fast boats intercepted in the Caribbean. Coast Guard cutters in the Pacific. Vessels destroyed from the air. Last weekend, Mexican forces—with CIA intelligence support—killed “El Mencho,” leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel; within hours, retaliatory violence erupted across Mexico. Since September 2025, the Pentagon’s Operation Southern Spear has conducted more than 40 strikes on small boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing around 150 people. The images are designed to look decisive, muscular and tough.

This approach, according to the economics of illegal markets, is almost certainly making the problem worse.

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These findings add to the growing international literature highlighting how drug policy contradicts expert assessments of drug harms across nations. To reduce these harms, public health strategies informed by evidence and expert input should be prioritized over punitive approaches.

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Over the past several months, the Trump administration has ramped up the War on Drugs by attacking boats from Venezuela that were allegedly bringing fentanyl to the United States. Much commentary has questioned the legality, humanity, and effectiveness of these measures and also expressed bewilderment at the relation between these actions and President Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was serving a 45-year sentence for cocaine trafficking.

Yet most discussion misses the fundamental point: the War on Drugs is, and always has been, a terrible policy.

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As 2025 comes to a close, the cannabis world is reflecting on the sometimes dizzying series of political, legal and cultural shifts that took place this year—and looking ahead to further developments that advocates and industry stakeholders will be navigating in the new year.

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SOS and methadone were associated with improvements in health outcomes, including reduced opioid toxicities and health-care use, in the year after treatment initiation. The findings suggest SOS programmes play an important, complementary role to traditional opioid agonist treatment in expanding the options available to support people who use drugs.

This review examines Berenson’s claims in light of the current literature in epidemiology, public health, and economics by reviewing his research summary and analyzing government data measuring marijuana use, mental illness, and violence. Despite Berenson’s claims, much of the literature he cites concludes that marijuana is effective in treating many conditions, including chronic pain—one of many scientific findings Berenson chooses to omit in his book.

Legal market capture of cannabis expenditures in Canada following federal cannabis legalization

Highlights

•Legal market capture of cannabis 5 years post-legalization in Canada is ∼78 %.

•Dried flower accounted for approximately 60 % of all legal cannabis expenditures.

•Higher legal market capture for drinks, vapes, and capsules; lower for concentrates.

•Overall, evidence of substantial transition in expenditures from illegal to legal cannabis market.

Read more in the International Journal of Drug Policy