The University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE–IUL) and the EMCDDA are happy to announce the sixth European drugs summer school (EDSS) on ‘Illicit drugs in Europe: demand, supply and public policies’, which will take place from the 26 June to the 7 July 2017.

This year the registration opens very early to allow foreign students to apply well in advance for VISA. You can register from today, 17 October. Candidates who enrol in the first phase (before 3 February) get a reduction of 100 EUR (total fee 700 EUR). The registration phase will then continue until the 2 June. The programme fee includes tuition, canteen vouchers and a welcome reception. Scholarships are available for eligible students.

The EDSS will take place in Lisbon. During the two-week programme, renowned keynote speakers, EMCDDA scientific experts, university professors and policymakers will give participants the information they need in order to meet the complex policy challenges occurring in this field.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

6th European Drugs Summer School - Illicit drugs in Europe: demand, supply and public policies

The current upheavals in the global drug system have made Geneva an international forum for policy dialogue on psychoactive substances. In this context, GREA and the University of Geneva are launching a platform for exchanges on health and human rights, which aims to strengthen links in the global ecosystem but also to stimulate synergies with local resources.

This event will take place on June 26th at 17.30 at the Biotech Campus in Geneva as part of the international campaign "Support Don't Punish".

After an official party with representatives of the UN, the Global Commission, the IDPC and the Geneva addiction network, a film will be screened: "A day in the life" on drug use in the world. "A day in the life" will be broadcast in Geneva. Produced by the Drug Reporter team, a foundation that promotes risk reduction and drug policy reform, the documentary portrays eight users in their everyday lives. Destigmatising and touching, it shows their difficulties on a daily basis, the setting in which they evolve and against which they collide, the eyes of others. The film disintegrates myths and prejudices that one may have of people who consume while privileging the humanist approach. It can be ordered from GREA (celestine.perissinotto@grea.ch) for any distribution desired in the French-speaking institutions (subtitled in French).

A new chapter for International Geneva: Drug policy

The central objective of this annual training programme is to enhance the skills of participants in applying Human Rights Based Approaches to Justice Sector Reform. It will facilitate the development of knowledge and skills regarding:

The legal principles and practice underpinning human rights based approaches to justice sector reform

The inter-linkages between justice sector actors (law enforcement, judicial, corrections, etc)

The relationship between the justice sector and related sectors ('security sector'), and concepts 'rule of law', 'good governance'

Human Rights Based needs assessment, programme design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation

Programming tools (including Human Rights Based benchmarks and indicators)

Case studies from national contexts and international field missions (conflict and post-conflict)

Teamwork, advocacy and strategic partnerships

The Programme uses a variety of pedagogical techniques; including presentations, plenary discussions, group work and role-plays, case studies, etc. The programme is highly participatory and emphasises cross-learning among participants, based upon advance reflection. Advance reading provides participants with a common grounding in the international legal framework governing justice sector reform and human rights based approaches.

An indicative programme is available here, and will be up-dated in light of the profiles of confirmed 2017 participants.

Reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of human rights based justice sector reform, the programme is aimed at individuals from a range of disciplines (law and other social sciences, project management, etc), with experience in developing and industrialised countries, as well as international field missions: government officials; regulatory bodies (e.g prison/police inspectors; national human rights institutions; Bar Councils etc); international civil servants (UN agencies, AU, EC, OSCE, OAS etc); non-state actor as well as policy advisors/project managers. The programme is of particular relevance to consultants providing technical assistance services to bi- and multi-lateral donors (see IHRN Expert Database)

 Please complete the application form below. Any queries can be address ed to pharney@ihrnetwork.org with 'OJIR17' in the subject line.

The programme is non-residential. Participants will be provided with a range of accommodation options to choose from, including on-campus.

The programme fee is 1175 euro for payments received by 24 February 2017 - covering tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments during the programme. The fee after that date is 1475 euro.

Justice sector reform: Applying human rights based approaches

26th June 2017 will be the 5th Day of Action organised so far. In 2013, 41 cities from around the world took part in the first ever Global Day of Action. In 2014, 100 cities around the world held a huge variety of different actions. In 2015, 160 cities joined forces to call for drug policy reform, and in 2016, activists in 125 cities participated.

26th June is the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking – a day that on which many governments celebrate their contributions to the global ‘war on drugs’. In the past, some governments have even commemorated this day by holding public executions or beatings of drug offenders.

By taking part in the Global Day of Action, you can help to “reclaim” the message on this important day.

26th June is also the United Nations’ International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – an ironic coincidence given the widespread torture and abuse suffered in the name of the war on drugs.

The aim for the Global Day of Action is to produce high-profile and visually symbolic local actions. It is your choice to decide what these actions are – and this decision depends on what is feasible and affordable, what works best in the local context, and what you think will have the greatest impact. The numbers involved can range from 10 or 20 people, to more than 100 people in some cities – and we hope that the examples from other cities can serve as inspiration as well. One of the greatest impacts that the campaign can have is through attracting positive media attention and raising awareness of the campaign issues. We recommend that local partners engage with the local media ahead of 26th June.

The only requirement we ask is that these actions are connected to the global campaign by using the SUPPORT. DON’T PUNISH logo. This could be on t-shirts, banners, posters, reports or other materials.

This allows us to tie together the local actions and to demonstrate that they are all part of a coordinated global effort. In many cities, you may also decide to use the Support. Don’t Punish logo alongside that of your organisation, your partners, and other campaigns.

If you are looking for inspiration about what to do, have a look at the actions that took place in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016!

We are currently collecting information about who wants to organise an action in their city, where and with whom. If you are interested, please email us at campaign@idpc.net.

Support. Don't Punish Global Day of Action 2017

The World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse organizes, for the first time, the global Forum on alcohol, drugs and addictive behaviours (FADAB) with a primary goal to enhance public health actions in these areas by strengthening partnerships and collaboration among public health oriented organizations, networks and institutions in the era of Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG 2030).

The Forum will provide an opportunity for a diverse group of stakeholders to build new and develop existing partnerships, networks and collaborative projects as well as discuss a variety of topics. (Learn more here)

Should you wish to participate please send your details to info@vngoc.org or directly to WHO at msb@who.int.

2017 WHO Forum on Alcohol, Drugs and Addictive Behaviours

Club Health Dublin 2017 is the 10th International Conference on Nightlife, Substance Use and Related Health Issues. The event marks 20 years of Club Health conferences.

The very first Club Health conference took place in Liverpool, UK in 1997 and was held in the world famous Cream nightclub. Following the success of that conference, it became bi-annual and international with the next Club Health conference held in Amsterdam in 1999. Club Health conferences have since been hosted in Australia, North America and throughout Europe. The 10th International Conference on Nightlife, Substance Use and Related Health Issues will be held in Dublin, Ireland in May 2017.

Dublin was chosen because of its acclaimed and varied nightlife, the dedicated Organising Committee and the enthusiastic response to the initial proposal of the conference being held in the city by a wide range of key relevant stakeholders within Ireland. Given recent public and political debate on proposed harm reduction measures such as pill/drug-testing and decriminalization, pending legislative measures to reduce alcohol consumption, emerging challenges in relation to sexual health and the forthcoming Irish national drugs strategy, Dublin is exceptionally poised to both host and benefit from the Club Health Conference in 2017.

Club Health Dublin 2017

To celebrate 20 years since its inception, the World Drug Report 2017 is presented in a new five- booklet format designed to improve reader friendliness while maintaining the wealth of information contained within.
Enhanced by this new format, the World Drug Report 2017 is, as ever, aimed at improving the understanding of the world drug problem and contributing towards fostering greater international cooperation for countering its impact on health and security.

at the Vienna International Centre in Board-Room D



All organisations in consultative status with ECOSOC are invited to send observers. Please send in your

 with your full name and your organisations full name no later than 26 May 2017.

Special event of the 60th CND

in History: Contextualizing Causes and Consequences

 conference, 22-25 June 2017, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

The twentieth century dawned with an unparalleled drive to regulate the production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol and other psychoactive substances. Many countries have developed their own specific historical trajectories of substance regulation, consumption, and user cultures. This regulatory drive continued into the 21st century, where today we live once more in a period of decisive regulatory changes and discussion. For instance in the submission of national regulations in Europe to EU directives. On the other hand, the ‘war on drugs’ is now more contested than ever before.

Global discussions have intensified concerning the consequences, feasibility, and desirability of drug prohibition. Moreover, the rise of virtual communities of substance use defies regulation within national borders.

To befit the context of this global discussion, and to stimulate comparative transnational research on substance use and regulation, the organizers of the conference would like to invite contributions addressing histories, problems and consequences of substance regulation in their wider contexts – including political, social, and cultural developments, as well as responses by and consequences for civil society, communities, and individuals.

Questions may include but are not restricted to the following:

To what extent were regulatory practices shaped and determined by national, local, or international factors?

How did user cultures and consumption develop within the context of changing regimes, for instance in specific national or urban settings?

How and why did substance use and substance regulation differ between periods and regions?

How can we explain similarities and dissimilarities between regulation of different substances (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, ‘drugs’) and their consequences, and other regulatory regimes (e.g., food, medicine, gambling, etc.).

How did legal markets and illegal economies, their impact on social, cultural and political life, and trading and trafficking patterns and routes develop in the context of changing regulation?

What was the role of media debates and public discourses on changing regulatory regimes and on their impact?

Finally, in light of the increasing availability of digitized sources the organizers are particularly interested in methodological contributions: on availability of sources in general, and on the impact of digitization of sources and the possibilities of using advanced text mining tools for transnational comparative research in alcohol and drug history in particular.

Proposals for papers (300 words and a short CV) and sessions can be send to Stephen Snelders (s.a.m.snelders@uu.nl) or Lisanne Walma (l.w.b.walma@uu.nl) before 

Alcohol and Drugs History Society conference

Drugs are dangerous. Come along to our Anyone’s Child event and find out why legally regulated drugs, supplied by doctors and pharmacists, would reduce the dangers. Join us for a discussion about what a new approach to drugs could mean for Cambridge, your family and your community.

Hosted by Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate

Rose Humphries, who lost two sons to heroin because of the drug war.

Anne-Marie Cockburn, whose 15 year old daughter, Martha, died from an accidental ecstasy overdose.

Neil Woods from LEAP UK who served as an undercover drugs officer for 14 years. Neil Woods’s book ‘Good Cop, Bad War’ is currently being turned into a TV series by the makers of Line of Duty.

Drugs are dangerous. But does banning them cause more harm than good?

The expert panel in the European Parliament organized by Michał Boni MEP, Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Polish Drug Policy Network is scheduled for the 20th of June 2017. The event is a direct continuation of the Urban Drug Policies Conference held in Warsaw in February 2016. The Warsaw Declaration – defining minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction for urban drug policies - was announced as the result of that conference. It is high time to present Warsaw Declaration and the best urban practices in drug policy to the European Parliament. The European Union is currently reviewing its own strategy in the area of drugs in parallel to the preparations for the upcoming drug policy debates on the UN level and implementation of the UNGASS outcome document. At the same time the Union has now carried out the evaluation of the Action Plan on Drugs 2013- 2016 which in turn has paved the way for the work on a new Action Plan for 2017-2020, currently underway in the Council. Europe has always been regarded as a progressive region where health and human rights in the drug policy context have been taken very seriously. While the current EU Drug Strategy seems to have all the necessary components in place– harm reduction as a priority, evidence-based policy-making, cooperation with the civil society, the way the strategy is being implemented varies from Member State to Member State. There is a need for a clear set of guidelines for implementing interventions based on the minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction, as well as coherent data collection on potential benefits of action and public expenditures based on comparable indicators across the EU. . The expert panel in the European Parliament organized by Michał Boni MEP, Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Polish Drug Policy Network will be attended by decision-makers from the European Parliament, the Organized Crime and Drug Policy Unit of the European Commission's Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs, Council's Horizontal Working Party on Drugs (HDG) members and Committee of Regions delegates, as well as the civil society represented by a wide range of NGOs. Our objective is to open a debate about implementing the principles of the Warsaw Declaration which would help provide minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction for municipal drug strategies. In the context of EU preparations for the 2019 UN high level review, we hope to introduce the local and urban perspective into the discussion. Participants of the event will have a chance to learn about the benefits that innovative local programs bring to public health and public safety. The meeting will also provide a great opportunity for building partnerships between decision makers and civil society representatives.

Regional Harm Reduction Conference

Marcus Brigstocke is a comedian, actor and all round great television personality known for his sharp wit. After appearing on Scroobius Pip’s podcast, we at the Stop and Search podcast - seeing as we’re proudly part of Scroobius Pip’s Distraction Pieces Network, - decided to invite Marcus on to talk further. Marcus has kindly agreed to come on for a chinwag, and you’re all invited…

We’re delighted to host Marcus at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road where we’ll have a relaxed chat about drugs, addiction, politics… who knows what else?!

Join us for this unique opportunity and bring your opinions and questions.

Stop and Search is a podcast produced in association with LEAP UK, an organisation of police who advocate the reform and regulation of all drugs.

Marcus Brigstocke: Stop and Search Podcast - The Drugcast

The most influential cannabis trade show in the U.S., hosted in the epicenter of the cannabis movement, by the industry’s only national trade association, the Cannabis Business Summit & Expo is an award-winning event that brings together the industry’s brightest minds.

Past Events