Russell Brown
Auckland journalist and media commentator. He is the owner of the Public Address community of blogs,
Growing alternatives
The UN has been encouraging development of alternative crops in poorer drug-producing countries for over a decade. Results have been mixed.
The world watches
Colorado, Washington and Uruguay have decided to go ahead with allowing the recreational use and sale of cannabis, and the world is watching.
Turning tide on compulsory treatment
Slave labour. Torture. Forced medical research. It reads like some bleak, distant history – but it’s the contemporary reality for government drug treatment in East and Southeast Asia.
Catching up with reality
The new DSM-V will launch next month. Will it spell a radical shift for the way our clinicians deal with addiction? Russell Brown looks at the New Zealand situation.
The Drug War in retreat?
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end for the global War on Drugs? Attacks on drug war ideology are coming from all quarters, argues Russell Brown, to the point where the United Nations has been forced to act. But how much regard the U
Bizarre behaviour
Bath salts. Police and media keep blaming them for bizarre behaviour. But, as Russell Brown writes, perhaps they need also to have a look at their own bizarre actions.
Opinion: The frustrating politics of drug reform
Home and abroad, even politicians favouring reform eventually reach an end to what they’re willing to say about the war on drugs. Russell Brown suggests public opinion may in fact be moving on.