Steve Rolles

@nathan_1864 @DixiCustodiam There is no moral or legal equivalence between a consenting adult risk behaviour (like drug use), and murdering another person.

@DixiCustodiam People commit murder despite murder being illegal. We should respond to this with the libertarian solution of legalizing murder.

My latest @TheAtlantic: I wrote about the U.K.'s "generational" cigarette ban, the failure of "grudging toleration," and the specter of the return of prohibition. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/…

@peter_sarris Who do you want selling drugs? Organised crime groups or tax- paying, strictly regulated, licensed specialist pharmacies? *There's no third option where those markets magically dissapear

Her party literally wants to legalise all drugs 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🇷🇺🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Ten years after the 2016 UNGASS on drugs, the global community faces a critical moment to reflect on progress and remaining challenges. Commissioners @HelenClarkNZ and @JuanManSantos examine what has changed—and what must come next to advance more effective, evidence-based drug policies. 🔗 Read more: globalcommissionondrugs.org/10yearsafterun… #UNGASS2016 #DrugPolicy #GlobalHealth

Remember when @CharlesFLehman and @KevinSabet went to The Washington Post to tell millions of people supervised consumption sites don’t work? Awkward… Because the researchers they cited just called them out. Imagine being corrected by your own sources. Supervised consumption sites save lives. PERIOD. Link to article washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

Did you know that the Milky Way is even milkier when viewed from the Southern Hemisphere? This is because from the southern side of our planet, we get a clearer, more direct view of the dense galactic core. Here’s a look at the Milky Way starting over the Southern Ocean (between Australia and Antarctica) from our @SpaceX Dragon window, complete with some aurora (Southern Lights) and fleeting Starlink satellites. Enjoy the view!

@OglesbyPat @KeithNHumphreys yep - agree on a lot. But I have distaste for the supercilious misrepresentations and straw man generalisation of reform positions

@SteveTransform @KeithNHumphreys I suspect you and Keith share some common ground here. 😎

Some believe drugs should be prohibited and stigmatized in the case of tobacco but legalized and destigmatized in the case of meth & fentanyl. The hypocrisy stems from clan politics (criticizing illegal drug use would put you on the side of the cops!!!). theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/…

@OglesbyPat @KeithNHumphreys It's an argument that sounds clever as a twitter soundbite, but doesn't stand scrutiny. Its perfectly coherent to support better regulation of both tobacco & illegal drugs. John Marks U-curve captures the point well. Same goal (optimised regulation). different starting point

@SteveTransform @KeithNHumphreys From A.I.:

@Nigel_Farage The Green party support heroin assisted treatment (HAT)(prescribing of pharmaceutical diamorphine to dependent users). It doesn't need legalising; it's a medical treatment that's been legal/practiced for 100yrs in the UK, going all the way back to the Rolleston Committee in 1926

The Greens are happy to legalise heroin and crack, but now we learn they think an afternoon pint is a step too far. Make it make sense.

@DrSuneelDhand different drugs, or greater choice of treatments isnt the same as 'more drugs'. One off/occassional psychedelic therapies (if ultimately established as safe and effective), will actually involve a lot less drug consumption than daily use of SSRIs for example.

The psychedelic craze that we are about to witness is not going to end well. This is a familiar story, plays out over and over again. America seemingly will never learn its lesson. More drugs are never the answer. Please save this tweet for a couple of years time.

@KeithNHumphreys Your regular reminder that *You are an activist*

I understand news outlets need to sell papers, but the term "controversial policy" in headlines typically means 99.9% of humanity sees it as rational but an activist or two denounced it using some words they learned at Oberlin.

Wow. The Pope was just asked his stance on migration. His answer is amazing: “I would change the question: what is the global North doing to help the global South in its situation that forces them to migrate.”

@DerekFinkle @GoodDrugPolicy @KevinSabet @CharlesFLehman I don't dismiss legitimate concerns, and haven't called anyone 'NIMBYs, fascists & murderers suffering from moral panic'.

@SteveTransform @GoodDrugPolicy @KevinSabet @CharlesFLehman Missionaries feel mocked when someone challenges "evidence-based" injection sites, but when citizens register legitimate concerns about drug dealing, open use, needles, assault & murder, we are NIMBYs, fascists & murderers suffering from moral panic. nationalpost.com/opinion/derek-…

.@KevinSabet and @CharlesFLehman's newest report, Supervised Consumption Sites: Ineffective and Illegal, is out now. The piece covers the disastrous impact of these sites on public health and the illegality of their operation. 🧵

@End_Our_Pain @ronniecowan Cannabis based medicines are legal for medical use in the UK. It's all a bit of a mess -still being worked through as the regulations try to catch up- but the law has already changed.

Trump administration reclassifies cannabis as less dangerous. In the UK, it’s still tightly restricted under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Same plant. Very different approach. Is it time the UK caught up — or is the current stance right? What do you think? #EndOurPain #forgottenchildren2018 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@SenTomCotton If you regulate them responsibly you can control potency, access, & marketing. You can put dosage info & health warnings on packaging. You can spend tax revenues (that previously went to organised crime) on proven health interventions. But FYI - rescheduling is not legalisation

Marijuana today is much more potent than just ten or twenty years ago, leading to increased psychosis, anti-social behavior, and fatal car crashes. Arkansans don’t want more dangerous drugs obtained more easily. A change to marijuana’s drug classification is a step in the wrong direction.

@CharlesFLehman lets enjoy some of the hard science in your 'summary of evidence' - while accusing others of moral panic.

It's just remarkable how a movement that claims to be "evidence-based" is built entirely on appeal to authority and moral panic. Personally, I think that's a bad way to do policy!

This is in response to me asking for studies with control groups btw

@Dogwith5fingers @tblickman So, disagree with you/trump and I'm deranged/retarded? Why do you bother engaging with anyone - do you think mindless name-calling will change anyone's mind? Opposite of a woke mind is a closed mind - you do get that right? It's an outlook, not a political position.

@SteveTransform @tblickman Oppression, powerful and scrutiny, TDS, a woke mind. You support the Scottish drug Quangos. You facilitate, not rehabilitate.

In an interview with New Zealand public radio, British drug policy expert Steve Rolles @SteveTransform looked back on a quarter of a century of decriminalisation in Portugal. rnz.co.nz/national/progr…

@besttrousers @CharlesFLehman @GoodDrugPolicy @KevinSabet And there are numerous evaluation criteria/indicators they have ignored, brushed over, or selectively misrepresented (I assume because they don't like the data). It's a truly dismal piece of work that would be laughed at in any peer review.

@besttrousers @CharlesFLehman @GoodDrugPolicy @KevinSabet It's not like a medical patient trial. Evaluating broader population interventions generally requires different approaches. Populations can't be randomised and establishing controls is difficult - esp in heterogeneous environments and crisis emergency responses.