Theo Di Castri

Scholar organises drugs education exhibition - Gates Cambridge Theo di Castri is organising a drugs education exhibition in Cambridge.

Theo di Castri is organising an exhibition to expand drug education to include more on the history & politics of drugs and drug policy. In Cambridge, from 30th May to 10th June - www.gatescambridge.org/about/news/s... @theodicastri.bsky.social @uniofcam.bsky.social #drugs

@camdighum.bsky.social @gatescambridge.bsky.social @clascam.bsky.social @cambridgedcn.bsky.social

Folks in Cambridge! Join us this Friday at 7PM for the opening of an exhibit featuring a series of transmedia art pieces created by communication students at the Universidad Iberoamericana & @homertoncollege.bsky.social.

We can’t arrest our way out of the overdose crisis. But Congress is trying with the HALT Fentanyl Act, which blocks health research & increases mandatory minimums for fentanyl-related substances. Tell your Senators to vote NO & prioritize health, not handcuffs: engage.drugpolicy.org/secure/vote-...

Mexico tries to tame ‘monster’ cartels to please Donald Trump President Claudia Sheinbaum faces hurdles in fighting drug violence to placate US

War on #Drugs in the news: www.ft.com/content/ad53...

‘Still shocking today’: Larry Clark’s addiction images – in pictures When the director and photographer returned home from Vietnam aged 20, he began photographing his intimate circle of friends – and their heroin use

#Drugs in the news: www.theguardian.com/film/gallery...

Weird how not a single one of the newspapers and magazines that have been breathlessly churning out "cancel culture" thinkpieces for the past four years have managed to use the word "censorship" at all to describe the most rapid and comprehensive campaign of mass-censorship in recent US history.

Drinking Up the Revolution: How to Smash Big Alcohol and Reclaim Working-Class Joy - Repeater Books Big Alcohol is one of the most powerful and profitable industries in the world — yet this constellation of massive corporations, lobby groups, and governments faces almost no scrutiny for the immense ...

Haven't yet read this one, but it's been on my list for awhile: repeaterbooks.com/product/drin...

The Monopoly Option: Obsolescent or a “Best Buy” in Alcohol and Other Drug Control? | The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: Vol 34, No 2 Abstract Given the attractive but problematic nature of psychoactive substances, legal markets in them are commonly subject to government controls, both as a source of revenue and to control levels of...

So what could legal regulation beyond the profit motive look like? Some possible starting points to think through this question: doi.org/10.1086/707513

White Market Drugs The contemporary opioid crisis is widely seen as new and unprecedented. Not so. It is merely the latest in a long series of drug crises stretching back over a century. In White Market Drugs, David Her...

If #drughistory teaches us anything, it's precisely that we need to imagine models of legal regulation that do not simply turn psychoactive substances over to profit-seeking entities. (if you haven't yet read @dhbuffalo.bsky.social, READ IT!) press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

But this seems like a misdirection from the more important issue at stake: namely, ought psychedelics be turned over to for-profit business ventures ?

I'm not familiar enough with the internal politics of the #psychedelics world to weigh in on the article's allegations re: @psymposia.bsky.social's tactics (thoughts on this welcome!)

How a Leftist Activist Group Helped Torpedo a Psychedelic Therapy The fallout from the F.D.A.’s rejection of MDMA-assisted treatment for PTSD worries researchers and experts who fear other psychedelic drugs in the pipeline could be jeopardized.

#Drugs in the news: New York Times pushing a fear-mongering "story of how a small band of anticapitalist activists helped sink the first psychedelic compound to come before the F.D.A." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/h...

The war on drugs needs a new tactic: shame Liberal reformers have been too hesitant to spell out the negative consequences for others

War on #drugs in the news: www.ft.com/content/8ab2...

Trump said he will label Mexican cartels as terrorists in his inaugural speech. What’s at stake? President confirms push to ‘wage war’ on drug cartels; critics say he should stop US arms used in drug war

(War on) #Drugs in the news: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

“If the US decides to [launch drone attacks on Mexico], like Israel has been doing all around its territory, they will be able to...The international environment restraining the use of force is much more permissive than it was a few years ago.”

Will Trump plan to label Mexican cartels as terrorists bring US military strikes? President-elect wants to ‘wage war’ on drug cartels; critics say he should stop US arms used in the drug war

#Drugs in the news (in which the effects of Israel's belligerence paves the way for US intervention in Mexico) (www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...)

Joe Biden commutes sentences of nearly 2,500 non-violent drug offenders Total number of pardons and commutations issued by US president is now higher than any of his predecessors

#Drugs in the news: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Does transitional justice have anything to say on gang violence? Mafias, gangs, cartels... All over the world, transitional justice is absent fron the scene. In-depth interview with Mark Freeman, expert in political transitions and peace negotiations, who tells us ...

Have/are people writing/thinking about this? Or is this a topic that's been overlooked in the way that it's been overlooked, say, in the field of transitional justice? www.justiceinfo.net/en/136157-do... 11/

A question I've long had is: what alternative readings of and responses to transnational organized crime might more critical/radical/progressive traditions (e.g. Marxists; abolitionists) be able to put forward to counteract the "common sense" proposals being put forward by the IMF? 10/

www.devstudies.cam.ac.uk/news/profess... 9/

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... 8/

Prisons and Crime in Latin America Cambridge Core - Latin American Government, Politics and Policy - Prisons and Crime in Latin America

www.cambridge.org/core/books/p... 7/

More Money, More Crime: Prosperity and Rising Crime in Latin America Abstract. This book reviews the rapid rise of crime and violence in Latin America over the last few decades and offers an explanation to a striking paradox

Another possibility the IMF blog fails to consider is the possibility that economic growth (in its current form) might in fact be a driver of (especially organized) crime in the region and that expanding prison systems actually drive the expansion of organized crime academic.oup.com/book/3746 6/

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Others point out that, "even if the Milei administration is successful in removing members of organized crime groups from Rosario’s streets, funneling more convicts into Argentina’s overcrowded prisons has failed to stop crime bosses’ operations" insightcrime.org/news/milei-e... 5/

Security success or truce? What explains the drop in violence in Rosario? Something has changed in Rosario since late 2023. The most violent city in Argentina saw a 62% drop in homicides year-on-year between January and August. Is a new zero tolerance approach working, or i...

Yet others (I think, rightly!) caution against taking the official discourse about the "success" of such policies at face value and suggest, for example, that the drop in homicides may in fact reflect a pact made between the state and the criminal world www.batimes.com.ar/news/argenti... 4/

The strategy consists of "territorial control of high-risk neighborhoods by the Federal Police, stricter prison systems for high-profile offenders, and collective prosecution of criminal groups under...the anti-mafia law". It's lauded for reducing homicides in Rosario by 65% in 11 months. 3/

Breaking Latin America’s Cycle of Low Growth and Violence Crime directly costs the region mora than 3 percent of GDP and lowers growth. Economic instability, in turn, drives higher rates of crime. Actions can be taken to break this vicious cycle.

This recent piece by the IMF (featured in adamtooze.substack.com), for example, frames the "comprehensive strategy" implemented in Rosario Argentina as an exemplary case study www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Art... 2/

Ecuador confirms incinerated bodies belong to missing ‘Guayaquil Four’ boys Sixteen air force personnel who apprehended boys being held in custody as inquiry into deaths continues

War on #Drugs in the News: www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...