Published 2 June 201111 March 2014 · Politics / Culture Thanks for 50 years of prohibition … SJ Finn This year marks 50 years of drug prohibition. 50 years since the United Nations adopted the first international treaty to prohibit certain drugs. And, in the spirit of cordiality and a large amount of tongue and cheek, there are those who would like to send their thanks. From Igor, Russian heroin trader. From Azlan, Taliban Leader. There are some, with just as much cordiality but no tongue and cheek, asking – it would seem – trickier questions: But back to the thanks. From Marika, girlfriend of a drug kingpin. And from Pablo, cartel owner in Mexico City. SJ Finn SJ Finn is an Australian writer whose fiction and poetry has been widely published in literary magazines and Australian newspapers. Her latest novel is Down to the River. She can be found at sjfinn.com. More by SJ Finn › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 29 January 202529 January 2025 · Palestine The demonisation of the Palestine movement fuels anti-Muslim racism Mariam Tohamy and Miroslav Sandev The spate of anti-Muslim racist attacks around the country are being fuelled by the anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies of mainstream politicians. Political attempts to undermine the Palestine movement and bipartisan support for Israel’s genocide are causing this. 7 November 20247 November 2024 · colonisation After the pale Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne The violence the colony must use to naturalise itself, to vampirise its vitality in acts of dispossession/accumulation, is one that — when it is not converting land into material — must frame violent resistance as a fundamental break in its monopoly over life and death, over the land.
