Release

Release is the national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law.  They provide free and confidential specialist advice to the public and professionals. Release also campaigns for changes to UK drug policy to bring about a fairer and more compassionate legal framework to manage drug use in our society.

Release believes that the present regime for the regulation of drugs will be regarded by future generations as one of the great policy disasters of the modern period. These arrangements result in far too many abuses of human rights, fail to protect individual and public health, erode respect for the law, undermine democracy and generate corruption. The War on Drugs is in fact a recipe for a society at war with itself, and this is what we find when we examine the state of global drug control.

Rather than committing ourselves to the fantasy of a drug-free world—something that never has existed and never will — Release believe we should accept drugs as part of life, and educate and regulate to restrict their negative effects. Whether this happens through a reinterpretation and reconfiguration of the present structure, or requires a more radical overhauling of institutional and juridical arrangements, remains to be seen.

Release was founded in 1967 by Caroline Coon and Rufus Harris, and is the oldest independent drugs charity in the world which is dedicated to meeting the health, welfare and legal needs of people that use drugs and those who live and work with them.  Release gained charitable status in 1972 following a review of its activities by the Rowntree Foundation.

To find more about the excellent work that Release carried out please visit their website www.release.org.uk or support them on Facebook and/or Twitter.