The sixteenth annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP) will be held in Leuven, Belgium, from 30 May – 01 June 2023, at the KU Leuven University.
The event will be hosted by RAND Europe, a non-profit and nonpartisan policy research organisation based in Brussels and Cambridge, in collaboration with the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven.
Please submit abstracts (no more than 250 words) using the button below.
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Deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to March 14th 2023.
Authors of papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be notified by March 31st.
We encourage full paper or PowerPoint submission by April 30th.
Conference themes:
1. New evidence and insights about cannabis policy changes
E.g.: cannabis regulation developments; experiences of (new) policy implementation; effects of cannabis policy changes (including implications for illegal markets).
2. Transformations in illegal markets
E.g.: conflict zones as magnets for drug production; drug trafficking and organised crime; seaports as nodes for illegal drug trade; corruption and drug trafficking; the intersection between drug policies, policy reform and organised crime.
3. Regional drug policy changes and challenges
E.g.: the North American overdose crisis; tensions in contemporary Asian drug policy; cocaine markets, use and harms in Europe; synthetic drug production and consumption in the Middle East.
4. People who use drugs and the voices of lived experience in drug policy
E.g.: putting people who use drugs at the centre; reducing stigma and discrimination; human rights and drug policy; intersectional perspectives.
5. Drug policy making and the use of evidence
E.g.: role of the EU and Pompidou Group in European drug policy; opportunities for (evidence-informed) policy reform; policy making from global, regional, national to local; the history of prohibition.
6. Forward-looking drug policy issues
E.g.: psychedelics policy; environmental harms of drug policy and illicit markets; the role of new technologies; medical applications of prohibited substances; novel approaches to harm reduction, treatment and prevention; interventions aimed at reducing drug-related deaths.
7. New data and methodological advances
E.g.: innovations in data sources and analysis; experiences and challenges in monitoring drug policy changes and their impacts; anticipating plausible future trends and developments in drug markets and consumption; evidence assessment.
Quantitative or qualitative papers in other areas are also welcome. The terms ‘drugs’ should be interpreted broadly to include any intoxicating substance used recreationally or misused medically, as well as the diversion of legal chemicals used in the production of psychoactive substances.
