About
Who We Are
YODA is a network of organisations and individuals that was set up in 2011 to meet the needs of young activists and professionals who believe we need a change in our thinking about how we can tackle the world drug problem.
Approach that we tried for the past 60 years, that is based mostly on the police and prisons, proved to be ineffective in achieving its own goals – reducing the production and consumption of illegal drugs. It also created vast collateral damage: hundreds of thousands people killed in the drug wars, and millions more incarcereted.
We believe that the successful drug policy is based on the public health, and sees the reduction of the social and individual harms as the measure of success. It is not used as an excuse to violate the basic human rights of the population – especially young people, who are currently the prime victims of the War on Drugs.
Our aims are to:
- Bulid a better and healthier society for young people and children, where drug policy is based on scientific evidence and human rights.
- Reduce the social stigma associated with drug use by providing the public, policy makers, media and other organisations with the information about the impact of drugs and drug policy on young people and other vulnerable communities.
- Improve the quality of life of children and young people using drugs by informing the society about boundaries of individual drug use and the need to elaborate evidence based drug policy on local, national and international level.
- Promote drug policies based on evidence, human rights and tolerance.
- Promote reduction of social and individual harms caused by the drug use, drug policy, drug trafficking and related issues.