The Drug Law Reform - Expert Seminars

The Drug Law Reform project organises a series of expert seminars, drug policy briefings and informal drug policy dialogues. The activities serve to cross-fertilise policy debates between countries and regions, stimulating participants to exchange experiences and learn lessons between policy officials, representatives from international agencies and nongovernmental experts and practitioners. Seminars are held under Chatham House Rule to ensure confidentiality and to allow participants a free exchange of ideas.

Expert Seminar "Where next for Europe on drug policy reform?"

October 2013

Analysis of the new EU strategy on drugs and its action plan and discussion on ways to improve and innovate European drug policy.

Some space for open debate

September 2012
Ann Fordham

Thailand has become the unfortunate poster child for punitive drugcontrol policies that have failed to reduce or eliminate drug use, and instead resulted in negative and damaging consequences. The willingness of the Thai Ministry of Justice to co-host the high-level seminar with IDPC and TNI shows that there are parties in Thailand concerned with the existing policies and keen to bring international experiences into the national debate.

image[node-id]

Expert Seminar on Proportionality of Sentencing for Drug Offences

May 2011

There has in recent years been a renewed interest in the principle of proportionality in sentencing policy for drug offences. There has been official analysis of the issue by the International Narcotics Control Board (‘INCB’) and several national initiatives that have emphasised a requirement for proportionality when sentencing in statute or penal code, asserted it through the courts, or, as with the UK Consultation on sentencing for drug offences, are continuing to explore the concept through policy processes.

Expert Workshop On Supply-Oriented Harm Reduction

April 2011

Can the concept of “harm reduction” be applied to supply-oriented challenges to better address the harms associated with illicit drug production and distribution, but also minimize the harms that stem from drug control itself?

image[node-id]

TNI-EMCDDA Expert Seminar on Threshold Quantities

January 2011

A wider trend for drug law reform is arising out of a felt need to make legislation more effective and more humane. Within this trend, a number of countries have considered decriminalisation or depenalisation models and many have, at least initially, considered threshold quantities as a good way to distinguish between what is possession and what is supply or trafficking and as a means to ensure that the sentences imposed are proportionate to the harmfulness of the offence.

image[node-id]

Expert Seminar on the Classification of Controlled Substances

December 2009

The classification of drugs has a profound impact on the lives and well-being of individuals across the world and where the classification is incorrect, people suffer unnecessarily. This is an issue that deserves greater public awareness and greater engagement with citizenry and that where such public awareness is in place it should be galvanised in order to work towards a new democratic answer to this difficult situation.