Ninth International Seminar of the series ‘Society and Drugs: A Rational Perspective’.

Launch of the Beckley Foundation’s Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform, organised in conjunction with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform.

Agenda

Report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Paul Volcker, Former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve

Principles of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Ruth Dreifuss, Former President of Switzerland

Effects of Punitive Drug Policies on HIV Epidemics, Kasia Malinowska, Open Society Institute

Establishing the Conditions for the Debate, Senator Murillo Karam, President, International Affairs Committee, Mexico.

Effects of the War on Drugs in Colombia, Interior Minister German Vargas-Llera, Minister of the Interior, Colombia

Drugs, Poverty and Segregation in South America, Julio Calzada, National Drug Board General Secretary, Uruguay

Case Studies in the Liberalisation of Drug Policy, Chair Mike Trace, International Drug Policy Consortium

Drug Use in Portugal – A Background, Dr João Goulão, National Drugs Coordinator, Portugal

Drug Policy in the Czech Republic, Dr Pavel Bém, Former Drug Policy Coordinator and Member of Parliament, Czech Republic

Cost-benefit Analysis of Regulation & Taxation of Cannabis, Professor Stephen Pudney, University of Essex

Reforms to Cannabis Policy in the USA, Tamar Todd, Drug Policy Alliance, USA

The Challenges in Introducing a Regulated Heroin Treatment, Professor Ambros Uchtenhagen, Chair, Addiction and Public Health Research Foundation, Switzerland

Swiss Heroin Clinics – Costs & Benefits of Heroin-Assisted Treatment in Switzerland, Dr Barbara Gugger, Medical Doctor to the Berne Opioid Substitution Treatment Service, Switzerland

UK Opioid Treatment Trial (RIOTT), Professor John Strang, King’s College London; Sarah Byford, Institute of Psychiatry