ISSDP has been engaging in events and side events at United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND) for a number of years, but in 2022 ISSDP obtained ECOSOC status as an officially registered organisation. This makes it one of the few academic drug policy organisation to gain this status. Consultative status for an organization affords a number of benefits including enabling ISSDP to send official delegations to the United Nations CND.
ISSDP UNODC 68th Commission on Narcotics Drugs Side Event – A Scientific Analysis of Harm Reduction in Drug Policy
March 2025
At CND68 the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy ran a side event titled “A Scientific Analysis of Harm Reduction in Drug Policy” co-sponsored by the UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch. The event brought together international drug policy experts to outline the latest evidence on three of the most widely adopted policies to date: opioid agonist treatment, naloxone and needle syringe programs. The event showed that firstly there is now clear evidence that each of the policies can reduce drug-related harms e.g. by reducing overdose deaths, reducing injecting-related risk behaviours and/or reducing HIV and HCV transmission. Secondly, it showed areas where there is need for scale up and/or improvements in harm reduction implementation and barriers to this e.g. unit cost and stigma. Finally, the side event highlighted the need to consider adopting more rigorous/comprehensive research methodologies to measure current and newer harm reduction policies. Doing so will continue to build the scientific evidence base on harm reduction policies.
PowerPoint presentations from Louisa Degenhardt, John Strang and Jane Mounteney are available via this password protected page for ISSDP members.
CND66
ISSDP’s first official delegation occurred at CND66 and included 1) Rosalie Pacula – Head of delegation; 2) Caitlin Hughes; 3) Peter Reuter, 4) Teodora Groshkova; 5) John Collins. ISSDP took part in two side events – Exploring the dynamics of drug markets in contemporary times and Emerging research on psychedelic therapies and their implications for policy. The former drew together a panel of drug policy scholars to explore recent developments in the dynamics of national (and regional) drug markets in the USA, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Speakers included: Dr Teodora Groshkova – European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction; Mark Micallef – Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime; Peter Reuter – University of Maryland; Bryce Pardo – UNODC and Caitlin Hughes – ISSDP/Flinders University.
CND67 and High Level Meeting
At CND67 ISSDP sent a delegation of nine members: 1) Caitlin Hughes – ISSDP President – Head of delegation; 2) Peter Reuter – USA; 3) Alex Stevens – UK; 4) Marie Jauffret Roustide – France; 5) Alejandra Cervantes Nieto – Austria; 6) Ahsan Ahmad – Malaysia; 7) Davide Fortine – France; 8) Beau Kilmer – USA (online); and 9) Rosario Queirolo – Uruguay. ISSDP organised a drug policy resource table and took part in the high-level (governmental) roundtable focused on “The way forward: the road to 2029.” Key speakers included Justice Tettey (UNODC); Todd D. Robinson (US Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs); Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh (Ghana); Natalia Riffo (Chile); Yukiko Nakatani (WHO) and Caitlin Hughes (ISSDP). ISSDP also ran a side event titled “Strengthening Drug Policy Evaluation” co-sponsored by the UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch and the UNODC Independent Evaluation Section. Motivated by calls of the United Nations 2024 Mid Term Review to build more robust evaluation approaches, this side event saw a panel of drug policy experts – Alex Stevens (University of Kent, UK); Marie Jauffret Roustide (INSERM, France); Rosario Queirolo (UCA – Uruguay); Peter Reuter (University of Maryland, US); and Caitlin Hughes (ISSDP President) – outlining ways to strengthen drug policy evaluation across using a diverse set of case studies (police drug diversion programs, drug consumption rooms and cannabis legalisation) and settings.
CND68
In March 2025 ISSDP took part in the 68th United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs meeting. The delegation included 1) Caitlin Hughes – ISSDP President (head of delegation); 2) Peter Reuter – USA; 3) Marie Jauffret-Roustide – France; 4) Chelsea Shover – USA; 5) Davide Fortin – France; 6) Beau Kilmer – USA (online) and 7) Aileen O’Gorman – UK (online). ISSDP ran a side event at the 68th United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs Meeting titled “A Scientific Analysis of Harm Reduction in Drug Policy” on Friday 14 March 2025 11:30-12:30 CEST, . The event was co-sponsored by the UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch. The event was chaired by Associate Professor Caitlin Hughes (ISSDP/Flinders University) and Dr Angela Me (UNODC) and included presentations from Professor Louisa Degenhardt (UNSW), Professor John Strang (Kings College London), Dr Jane Mounteney (European Union Drugs Agency) and Professor Peter Reuter (University of Maryland) on the latest evidence on three of the most widely adopted harm reduction policies: opioid agonist treatment, naloxone and needle syringe programs.
