Drugs and Alcohol Today: Volume 17 Issue 2

In this issue

Blaine Stothard, Axel Klein

Reflection on the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs – one year on

Steve Rolles

The purpose of this paper is to show a reflection of one year on how the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) event was unfolded and its impacts and longer term…

After UNGASS – where do governments go from here?

Mike Trace

The purpose of this paper is to indicate the outcomes, implications and possibilities for responses arising from the April 2016 UNGASS meeting and statement and to identify areas…

Losing UNGASS? Lessons from civil society, past and present

John Collins

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of civil society in the recent history of drug policy reform. It focuses on the UN drug control system, which is designed to…

Refocusing metrics: can the sustainable development goals help break the “metrics trap” and modernise international drug control policy?

David R. Bewley-Taylor

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the dominant metrics currently used to measure the success of the UN based global drug prohibition regime are in many…

International drug policy – health before politics

Chris Ford, Sebastian Saville

The purpose of this paper is to explain how international drug policy continues to have a hugely damaging effect on population health, human rights and wellbeing, not only on…

The influence of global players on the drug control system: an analysis of the role of the Russian Federation

Khalid Tinasti, Isabela Barbosa

The negotiations leading to the UN Special Session (UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs (UNGASS)) on drugs have highlighted the lack of consensus among the global…

A turning point for UK drug policy: opportunity or stasis

Blaine Stothard

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current policy stasis in UK drug policy.