As the University calendar slowed and the covid restrictions slowly relaxed, July saw the GDPO and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences more broadly welcome as a visiting scholar the amazing Dr Alana Griffith, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Barbados. Lecturer in Sociology and, among other things, former Commissioner on the CARICOM Commission on Marijuana, Alana spent three weeks in Swansea working with the team on the GDPO’s cannabis and the Caribbean workstream.  You can read her blog about her time in Wales here: Blog. 

Dave, Branwen, and Alana

In the context of ongoing interest in the Global Drug Policy Index (GDPI), and demonstrating the truly international reach of the initiative, in early August Matt made a Zoom presentation on the design and application of the Index to the Iranian National Center of Addiction Studies (INCAS), at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). Indeed, while the first version of the GDPI continued to generate discussion, work persisted in the background on the development of a second iteration, including the inevitable search for funding.  Further, reflecting the excellence of the team behind the GDPI website, the Brazilian based company Café won a prestigious @Fastcompany Innovation by Design Award for their work on the project. Bearing in mind the quality of the website, we’re sure that this award will be the first of many.

Matt presenting to members of  INCAS

Speaking very much to one of the Index’s key dimensions, August saw Heloisa Broggiato take part in a Global Palliative Care and Pain Relief Research Hub webinar on ‘Comparative Models in Palliative Care and Pain Relief from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.’  In addition to her ongoing applied work in the NGO sphere, Heloisa also saw academic success during the quarter.  After many years of hard work as a part-time graduate student at Swansea University, in early September she passed her PhD viva, with only minor corrections.  The GDPO team sends her a massive congratulations on this impressive achievement. We look forward to seeing spin-off articles and grey literature publications (no pressure...)  Supervised primarily by Dave, the thesis, International Drug Control and Access to Controlled Medicines in Brazil: Changes and Tensions in International Regimes (2009-2019), was examined by Professor John Dumbrell (Durham University) and Dr Dawn Bolger (Swansea).  A big thanks go to them and Luca Trenta who, as second supervisor, stepped up to help get Heloisa over the line.  With one Observatory colleague progressing her academic career, another changed course and moved away from academia.  Congratulations go to Rick Lines who in early September joined Public Health Wales as the new Head of Substance Misuse and Vulnerable Populations. Rick will remain as faculty at Swansea University and stay connected with the GDPO, especially in relation to his work on harm reduction.

In terms of publications, the publishing machine that is Ediomo-Ubong had another article in an academic journal.  Based on original fieldwork, his excellent ‘Nuancing Drug Harms: Exploring the Context of Substance Abuse Among Street-Involved Women in Uyo, Nigeria’ appeared in Contemporary Drug Problems in September.  That month also saw the publication launch of Cannabis Regulation: Lessons from the illicit tobacco trade, written by good friend of the Observatory, Benoit Gomis.  As noted in an earlier Quarterly News, the report was produced as a collaboration between the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the GDPO, Health Poverty Action (HPA), Transform, the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).  

As we moved from Spring to Summer, the GDPO team continued to be productive in relation to a range of activities and associated publications. Background work remained ongoing on several of the Observatory’s core projects, particularly the United Nations Regime Reform and Modernization (R2M), Africa, and drug policy metrics workstreams. Relating more to our Drugs and Conflict project, in May GDPO Research Associate Allan Gillies presented a paper at a workshop organised by ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow Euan Raffle at the University of Leeds. ‘Unmaking and remaking the war on drugs’ was hosted by the European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Centre for Global Security Challenges, with Allan’s paper, ‘Cocaine and the Post-Colonial State: Organised Crime, Political Transition and Hybrid Regimes in Bolivia’ drawing on his ongoing research - including fieldwork - in that country. June saw the publication by the GDPO partner organisation the Transnational Institute of Report on the Caribbean Informal Drug Policy Dialogue on the Future of Cannabis Supported as a final part of the GDPO’s 2019 GCRF grant on cannabis in the Caribbean, the report covers the Chatham House Rules discussions at the December 2021 event in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Activity related publications spanned a range of projects and outlets. Late April saw Dave contribute to a Transnational Institute Longread, 'A House of Cards: "High Compliance": A legally indefensible and confusing distraction.’ Co-authored with Martin Jelsma (TNI and GDPO Senior Research Associate), Tom Blickman (TNI) and John Walsh (Washington Office on Latin America), the piece critically analyses a proposed approach to allow the non-medical use of cannabis within the extant UN drug control treaty framework. May was another busy month for Research Associate and Africa project lead, Ediomo-Ubong Nelson. With Dave, Ediomo-Ubong co-authored The World Drug Report 2021: A critical assessment of projected increases in African drug use, a co-branded report with a key Observatory partner, the International Drug Policy Consortium. Within the academic realm and focusing on a related topic to that covered by the analysis of the World Drug Report, June saw the online publication of Ediomo-Ubong’s article ‘Consumption, not decriminalization: How Nigerian drug dealers/users account for cannabis harms,’ in the International Journal of Drug Policy. June was also an important month for Observatory publications relating to the Drugs and Conflict project and collaboration with the University of Rosario on research into drones, remote warfare and the ‘war on drugs in Latin America. The second and final report of the work stream, Remote Warfare in the ‘Backyard’; The US Government, Counternarcotics, and Remote Warfare in Latin America’ was again co-branded with with Zilas (The Central Institute for Latin American Studies, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstatdt, Germany) and Observatorio Colombiano De Crimen Organizado, Universidad Del of Rosario, Colombia). Authored by Jochen Kleinschmidt, Luca Trenta and Delina Goxho, it concludes that remote warfare practices have, besides the human rights problems inherent in many of them, led to at least three distinct types of problems, namely (1) unpredictable effects regarding the original policy aims, (2) serious problems of legitimacy for the intervening actor due to the clandestine nature of its operations, and (3) the possible dependence on local actors, who may pursue aims that may beentirely different or from or even incompatible with those of the intervening actor. Plans are currently underway for a joint event with the University of Rosario based around the workstream. In terms of previous events, for those who missed it, the launch event for the Oxford Handbook of Global Drug Histories (to which both Dave and Christopher Hallam contributed) was made available on YouTube during the quarter.

And finally, congratulations go to GDPO Research Associate and Drug Crypto Markets project lead Martin Horton-Eddison. After much covid-19 induced delay, Martin at last officially graduated and was awarded his PhD in April. In his own words, this means that he is ‘now officially, irreversibly, formally: Doc Martin.’ Congratulations Martin!

Despite all hopes that 2022 would be ‘covid-free’ and back to some semblance of normality, Omicron had different ideas. While this was the case, however, the team - and friends of the Observatory - remained busy, both in terms of activities and publications. Regarding the former, February saw Matt present ongoing work relating to an academic publication on the Global Drug Policy Index (GDPI) at a Swansea University Department of Politics, Philosophy, and International (PPIR) Relations seminar. This received some excellent constructive feedback from Departmental colleagues. He was also part of a Zoom side event on the Index at this year’s UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March. See a recording of the tremendous ‘The Global Drug Policy Index 2021: A global tool for evaluation and accountability’ session (co-sponsored by the GDPO), including Matt’s presentation on the methodology behind the GDPI. His plenary talk on the Index at the European Harm Reduction Conference in Prague in November 2021 is also now available to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LUmN3GH0rU 

Continuing in its mission to help develop the next generation of drug policy scholars, the GDPO was once again central to the delivery of the PPIR MA module, The Global Governance of Drugs: Power, (Geo)Politics and Narco-Diplomacy here at Swansea University. Many thanks go to Matt, who amidst all his work on the GDPI, also stepped in to help Dave deliver and assess the course. And finally, as part of the Observatory’s Harm Reduction Project, Rick, Dave and Joe Janess (Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy) continued preparatory work on an exciting new collaboration with Hywel Dda Health Board here in Wales. Led by Joe, we’re pleased to be involved in the evaluation of the brilliant new Spike on a Bike service offered by Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service.

Concerning Observatory grey literature publications, January saw the publication of GDPO’s 18th Policy Brief, Scanning the Horizon: Drones and Counter-narcotics in Latin America by Jochen Kleinschmidt and Luca Trenta. Co-branded with Zilas (The Central Institute for Latin American Studies, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstatdt, Germany) and Observatorio Colombiano De Crimen Organizado, Universidad Del of Rosario, Colombia) this is part of an ongoing collaboration with the University of Rosario researching drones, remote warfare and the ‘war on drugs’ in Latin America. As part of the UN project, the GDPO and IDPC also published (Re)Framing Regime Performance: A Critique Of The INCB Report For 2020 And Its Special Report Celebrating The Anniversaries Of The 1961 And 1971 Drug Conventions. Furthermore, in March we were pleased to publish a very personal blog by former Applied Criminal Justice and Criminology MA student, Temitope Salami. ‘My Harm Reduction Journey form the University to an NGO’. This charts Temitope’s arrival in Swansea, his increasing fascination in harm reduction having taken one of Rick’s modules and finally securing a job with Harm Reduction International. We wish him all the best with the fantastic team at HRI. 

In terms of other publications, Rick’s co-authored (with Julie Hannah and Giada Girelli) ‘”Treatment in Liberty” Human Rights and Compulsory Detention for Drug Use’ was published in Human Rights Law Review. It examines compulsory detention for ‘drug treatment’ within international human rights law. GDPO Africa Project lead, Nelson Ediomo-Ubong was co-author, with Bridget O. Alichie, of ‘Chronic Pain and Prescription Opioid Use Among Socially Marginalized Nigerian Women: Exploring Supply Channels and Pathways to Misuse’ in the Journal of Drug Issues. And, after a (very) long time in the works, Dave and Chris were both thrilled to have chapters in Paul Gootenberg’s epic new edited collection The Oxford Handbook of Global Drug History. With Chris drawing on his PhD research, the chapters focused on ‘Interwar Drug Scenes and Restrictive Regulation in Britain’ and ‘The Creation and Impact of Global Drug Prohibition’.

Last, but by no means least, GDPO is thrilled to welcome a new member to the team. Eliza Kurcevič of EHRA joins us as a Research Associate to work on the Observatory's Harm Reduction Project. We look forward to working with you Eliza!

The GDPO team had another busy quarter involving a range of both existing and new projects and activities. Indeed, while the drugs and drones in Latin America project ticked away in the background, others - after many months of quiet hard work - broke the surface. Key among these was the launch of the Global Drug Policy Index (GDPI) in November. As the academic lead working with the Harm Reduction Consortium behind the initiative, the GDPO was involved in several launch events with Matt and Dave making presentations on the Index methodology at a number of forums. Key among these was Matt’s in-person presentation at the plenary opening session of the European Harm Reduction Conference in Prague, Czechia. All those involved with the Index were thrilled with the amount of media coverage received from around the world, including endorsement from Helen Clarke, Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and former Prime Minister of New Zealand. Please do check out a video explaining the GDPI here. Work is ongoing to secure funding for a second iteration that builds upon this initial pilot. The GDPO was also pleased to be involved with several events relating to our new Harm Reduction Project. Moderated by Dave, Rick (Project lead) was joined by Eliza Kurcevič (Eurasian Harm Reduction Association) at an online event, ‘New Psychoactive substances in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: a qualitative study of people you use drugs and harm reduction services in eight countries.’ This focused on an ongoing collaborative project funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund. Shortly afterwards in late October Rick also hosted an online session with Damon Barrett of the University of Gothenburg. Here discussion focused on Damon’s recent book, Child Rights and Drug Control in International Law. Meanwhile, drawing on research conducted for the Observatory’s Crypto-Drug Markets project, Martin gave a virtual presentation ‘in’ Vienna for the VNGOC at the Intersessional meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Finally, continuing with the GDPO’s mission to strengthen the interface between drug policy research and teaching at Swansea University and beyond, Dave gave a guest lecture for Rick’s postgraduate drug policy module.

In that vein, in terms of publications we were also pleased to showcase the excellent research of several Swansea University Masters students. This included blogs by Ellie Harding, ‘The disposable foot soldiers of crime’ – media, County Lines and Moral Panics,’ and Temitope Salami, ‘Proposing a Harm Reduction Framework for Youth Drug Use in Nigeria: A Research Inspired Commentary.’ At the time of publication, November 2021, both were MA candidates in Applied Criminal Justice and Criminology. Heavily involved in their supervision, Rick also co-authored (with Niamh Eastwood, Associate Member of the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Middlesex University) a timely piece with The Conversation titled ‘Scotland won’t prosecute personal possession of class A drugs, but outdated laws prevent deeper reforms’ And rapidly developing a reputation as a publishing machine, the GDPO’s Africa project lead Ediomo-Ubong was busy both with GDPO publications and those within the formal academic realm. Regarding the former, October saw the publication of the Policy Brief Between Prohibition and Regulation: Narrative Analysis of Cannabis Policy Debate in Africa. On the latter he published in both the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice and Substance Use and Misuse.

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