My essay appears in this week’s Sydney Morning Herald: The only way to ensure a safer Australian society is to legalise and regulate all drugs. This could save lives, earn huge revenue for the state and diminish the power of criminal gangs that make billions of dollars annually from the production and sale of illicit…
Showing all posts tagged Philippines

My forthcoming book: Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs
After 4+ years of global investigation, my new book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, will be released in September in Australia, November in the US and January in the UK. Translated editions will come later. It features my reporting from Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, the Philippines, the US, UK and Australia and…

What Duterte's brutal drug war looks like in the Philippines
My investigation in Foreign Policy: MANILA, Philippines — The murdered man lay in a pool of his own blood. At around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22, two men on motorcycles shot Manny “Buddy” Wagan outside his small shop selling junk metal just outside Manila. He was killed instantly with two bullets to the head. A…

How the Philippines has been transformed by its war on drugs
My… story in Australian magazine Crikey: President Rodrigo Duterte has maintained a firm grip on the Philippines since being elected in July 2016. Although public support is slipping, due partly to the brutality unleashed by his “war on drugs”, which has seen up to 20,000 people killed in 18 months, the general population still backs the…