Beyond Prohibition: Controversy and Tensions Within Harm Reduction
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Lunchtime Meeting at Harm Reduction 2008: IHRA’s 19th International Conference
Barcelona, Spain
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Wednesday May 14th 2008
13:00 – 14:00
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Organised by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation
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This session will examine the evolution of the drug law reform debate within the harm reduction movement, and the problems created by challenging the established tenets of an overwhelmingly prohibitionist policy and legal structure. Speakers will propose a range of solutions - both conceptual/analytical and practical/political - to the many issues generated by attempts to move the debate forward.
The session will involve three 15 minute presentations followed by a structured question and answer session to discuss ‘how harm reduction can embrace regulated drug markets: challenges and responses to this idea’.
Presentations
1. Mark Haden (Health Officers of British Colombia, Vancouver, Canada)
How the often polarised legalisation and prohibition debate can be re-conceptualised as a rational analysis of the various options legal regulatory models within a public health framework, and how a harm reduction analysis can be expanded to incorporate drug production and supply.
Key reference document:
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A Public Health Approach to Drug Control in Canada
2. Steve Rolles (Transform Drug Policy Foundation, UK)
How the fault lines in the debate can be bridged by establishing common ground on the principles and aims of drug policy; and how, once established, this provides a basis for more rational engagement, a less confrontational a critique of prohibition, and a solid foundation to make the case for the legal regulation of drug markets.
Key reference document:
After the War on Drugs, Tools for the Debate
3. Donald McPherson (Drug Policy Coordinator, City of Vancouver)
How the political and institutional obstacles were overcome to allow the call for regulation of drug markets within a public health framework to become incorporated into the official drug policy for the City of Vancouver.
Key reference document:
Preventing Harm from Psychoactive Substance Use. |
