The game was developed in flash for the web by mito.hu, in order to educate youth about the real consequences of the war on drugs - to explain why it's not working.

Along with the new video game, the HCLU hopes to raise awareness about the Count the Costs campaign.

What do you think of the game? Share your feedback on our Facebook Page, and we'll pass it along to the HCLU.

http://drugwarhero.org

Here are a few screen captures of the game, in action:

The first-person shooter in Mexico:

The crop dusting mission in Colombia:

 
Russell Brand told MPs at the House of Commons, Home Affairs Select Committee, in the UK that he thinks addiction needs to be treated as an illness and dealt with in the public health system, rather than primarily in the criminal justice system. Prior to his recovery, Brand himself had been arrested no fewer than 12 times for drugs. Now he's working to promote a rehabilitation program called Focus12, headed by Chip Somers.
 
Check out what he had to say to the committee, in this video:
 

 
Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson, who is also outspoken about the failure of the war on drugs, answered readers questions at the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

Here's a sample of what he said:

Who benefits from a continued war on drugs?

Sir Richard Branson: The cartels making hundreds of billions of dollars a year benefit the most. They are able to establish monopolies on products that have high demand, and they are flourishing. After this, especially in the United States, there is a major private prison industry that depends on drug convictions - each prisoner costs over $40K a year, while treatment is under $10K.

Read the full Q&A with Branson, here.

According to NOW Magazine:

Despite the authors’ assertion that three T.O. safe injection sites would reduce overdose deaths and HIV and hepatitis C infections, Health Minister Deb Matthews quickly declared that the province has no intention of pursuing the matter at this time because “experts continue to be divided on [their] value.”

...

Councillor Gord Perks, who represents Parkdale, an area seen by many as the logical place for a supervised program, says council needs to be open to the study’s findings. 

“It’s very clear that these facilities would save lives, reduce health care costs and reduce harm to our neighbourhoods,” he says. “So I think that from a good policy perspective but also from a moral perspective we have to try to find a way to meet the recommendations.”

-
You can read NOW Magazine's article on their website.
You can read the study on the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment Study website.

 
Last week all 31 delegate leaders at the Summit of the Americas agreed (some to greater or lesser extents) that the war has failed and that it's time for new approaches.

As The Globe and Mail's editorial reported from the Summit of the Americas, Guatemalan President Otto Perez urged other leaders to "stop being dumb witnesses to a global deceit” and consider treatment, harm reduction and decriminalization as viable alternatives.

Meanwhile, The Economist Magazine reported a part of the deceit going on, on the other side of the world in Tajikistan, which is a location also featured in Raw Opium.

Indeed, as Raw Opium shows there is a lot of speculation about high level officials being embroiled in the drug trade, and there are known incidents of corruption.
 

If you'd like to read more, check out The Economist Magazine article here.

You can read The Globe and Mail's article here.

 
During the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, on the weekend, Stephen Harper conceded that the war on drugs is a failure, after listening to Latin American leaders explain how costly the largely US-led war is. However, Harper still appears hardline on his criminal justice approach to drugs, insisting on mandatory minimum sentences in his Omnibus Crime Bill (a bill that has been critiqued by many drug policy reform advocates).
 
Watch CBC's Newscast to find out more:
 

Files from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/15/pol-milewski-harper-war-on-drugs.html

 
Listen to an illuminating discussion about the documentary and drug policy that took place on March 22, 2012 in New York City:

Featured Speakers:

Peter Findlay, Director of Raw Opium
Scott Calbeck, Associate Producer and Researcher for Raw Opium
Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Vanda Felbab-Brown, Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution and 2012 Open Society Fellow
Russ Maynard, PHS Community Services Society Program Director

Moderator:

Amy Goodman, investigative journalist and syndicated columnist, author, and host of Democracy Now!