The call for abstracts for ISSDP 2026 has now been released and is open until 30.11.2025.
The 19th annual ISSDP conference, hosted from 30 June to 2 July 2026 by the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University in Perth, will bring together drug policy scholars, policy makers, advocates and community voices, to explore drug policy, its formulation, effects and evaluation under the banner Connecting affected communities, drug policy and public health.
Drug policy has differential impacts on affected communities, and many are often sidelined in drug policy debates, both pre- and post-reform. Similarly, the inter-connection between drug policy and public health is not often paramount in debates around prohibition or post-prohibition models. Further, in the ‘fake news’ era there are questions about the credibility of scientific and non-scientific approaches to drug policy. Held in Australia for the first time in a decade, the 2026 conference encourages submissions from both the global south and the global north.
Emphasising the importance of people who use drugs and First Nations people in drug policy and its scholarship, it will also highlight how drug policy intersects with drug treatment, research with people with criminal legal system contact, local communities, families and others. Incorporating ISSDP’s focus on connecting and facilitating world-leading drug policy research, the conference will showcase novel methodological approaches and bring together a broad range of scholarship across the drug market, incorporating use, supply, cultivation/production and trafficking as well as other drug policy topics.
For ISSDP 2026, we particularly encourage contributions that address the following conference themes:
- Drug markets, production and supply
- Methodological innovations
- Affected communities: People who use drugs, First Nations people and others
- Evidence on legalization and other alternatives to prohibition
- Public health, harm reduction, justice and drug policy
- Drug policy in the global south
- Drug treatment – goals, innovations and policy
- Drug policy, science and non-science in the ‘fake news’ era
- Other topics of drug policy scholarship
Convenors:
- Simon Lenton – National Drug Research Institute (Australia) (NDRI)
- Paul Dessauer – Peer Based Harm Reduction Western Australia (PBHR WA)
- Bronwyn Myers – enAble Institute (Australia)
- Bep Uink – Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
- Paul Dietze – NDRI and Burnet
Abstracts can be submitted for: oral presentation, poster, and in-program workshop (usually up to 90 minutes). Proposals for longer workshops to be held on the day before the conference, 29.06.26 can be submitted by email to issdp2026perth@gmail.com. Registration for pre-conference workshops will be separate to the conference registration itself.
Scholarships – For the 2026 conference in Perth the ISSDP will sponsor at least three scholarships. The scholarships will include a reimbursement of registration fee and up to 2500 British pounds to cover travel and lodging. There scholarship categories are:
- Early career researcher (5 years since most recent degree)
- Researcher from a low- or middle-income country (using the World Bank’s classification for fiscal year 2025)
- Researcher with lived and/or living experience of drugs, including family members.
Applicants must check the relevant scholarship option when submitting their abstract and upload a short paragraph about why they should be selected (max 250 words). The review committee will take this paragraph into account as well as the quality of the abstract.
Further details about the conference including keynote speakers, accommodation, social activities, scholarships, and side-events will be released in coming months.
