ISSDP UNODC Webinar: A scientific analysis of the 2025 World Drug Report

July 2025

In July 2025 ISSDP ran two webinars with UNODC that provided a scientific analysis of the 2025 World Drug Report. It featured an overview of key trends from Angela Me (Chief Research and Trend Analysis Branch, UNODC) and an ISSDP panel of experts discussing three topics in the WDR thematic chapters:

1. The impact of drug use on health.
2. The nexus between organized crime and drug trafficking.
3. The impact of drugs on the environment in Europe.

Featuring speakers:

• Yatan Pal Singh Balhara – Professor of Psychiatry at NDDTC, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
• Letizia Paoli – Professor of Criminology, University of Leuven, Belgium
• Daniel Brombacher – Director of the European Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime
• Daniel Ciccarone – Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, USA
• Daniel Mejia – Professor of Economics, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

PowerPoint presentations from the webinar are available via this password protected page for ISSDP members.

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.

Webinar: Changing Drug Markets in Africa – Research and Policy Issues

October 6th 2021, 3-4.30 pm CET

This seminar, organized by the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP) in collaboration with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), aims to contribute to expanding the research base on drug markets in Africa. Further, it seeks to highlight vital ongoing research within the region demonstrating the ever more complex relation between transnational and local drug markets. The seminar incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, grounded in new empirical research on the dynamics of various drugs trades across Africa and the lessons that can be learned from this research for future research design and policy analysis. The presentations are designed to reflect a diversity of perspectives, and to provide points of departure for further examination by the discussant and in a Q&A session with panellists.

Joint ISSDP-UNODC webinar

A scientific look at the 2020 World Drug Report

A joint ISSDP-UNODC webinar took place on 2 July 2020.

The webinar featured an overview of the 2020 World Drug Report by Angela Me (Chief Research and Trend Analysis Branch, UNODC) and an ISSDP panel of experts discussing three key topics: 1) socioeconomic circumstances of heavy use, 2) access to controlled medicine and 3) the rise of meth and stimulants.

Webinar 1 Presentations