GDPO Quarterly News

GDPO Quarterly News: July 2018 – October 2018

While keeping busy with a range of ‘low noise’ impact related activities, the Quarter was relatively quiet in terms of public facing work.  That said, September saw the results of a long-planned research expedition to India by Dave and TNI’s Tom Blickman come to fruition.  There they liaised closely with GDPO Technical Advisor Romesh Bhattacharji on a range of activities relating to the cannabis policy reform project, and specifically ongoing work  on the updated version of the 2014 TNI-GDPO publication, rise and decline of cannabis prohibition pdf. In addition to meetings and interviews with parliamentarians in New Delhi, fieldwork included a return trip to the Himachal Pradesh to examine changes within the cannabis market since a first visit in 2014 (See QN below) and an excursion into the largely unstudied cannabis producing regions of Uttarakhand. Relating some initial impressions from this fieldwork to broader policy discussions, Tom was interviewed by the Delhi Post which subsequently published a story titled Seek drug reform within international law.

(Cannabis in Uttarakhand)

The Quarter proved to be productive regarding GDPO and GDPO related publications.  July saw the publication of a Situation Analysis by Jasmin Gamez (MA student at Central European University,  2017-18), Environmental Impacts of the Legalization of Cannabis in California.  Another product of the Observatory’s collaboration with the School of Public Policy at CEU, in August GDPO published a timely Working Paper by Shaun Shelly and Simon Howell (University of Pretoria and Research Director, African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum respectively)  titled South Africa’s National Drug Master Plan Influenced & Ignored  The following month, after over a year’s research and drafting, we were pleased to publish a Working Paper by young scholar and former University of Bradford  Rotary Peace Fellow, Kari Williams: Crime, Drugs, and Power in Honduras  Also in September Khalid published an article in Les Echos.fr, ‘Vers une coalition mondiale de commerce du cannabis?’ while the GDPO’s submission on drug policy metrics to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was reference its significant report countering the world drug problem with regard to human rights  September also saw the release of the Spanish edition of the GDPO, TNI, WOLA joint publication on Inter Se treaty modification El equilibrio entre la estabilidad y el cambio La modificación inter se de los.  Towards  the end of the month, Axel’s co-edited collection, Collapse of the Collapse of the Global Order on Drugs: From UNGASS 2016 to Review 2019was published by Emerald while Christopher’s first monograph, based on his excellent PhD dissertation, White Drug Cultures and Regulation in London, 1916-1960 was published by Palgrave.

GDPO Quarterly News: April 2018 – July 2018

April saw Dave visit Vienna and present at the first ever International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Civil Society Hearing, an event organised by the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs.  Wearing his Transnational Institute Associate Fellow’s hat and as one of ten selected NGO representatives, he presented on Balancing Treaty Stability and Change: Inter se modification and the UN drug control conventions.  

Dave was also briefly in London to meet with Jasmin Gamez, Mai Hla Aye and Anna Dzunic from Central European University’s School of Public Policy Applied Policy Programme.  The meeting was a final discussion of commissioned publications and videos from the GDPO-APP joint project, some of which are listed below.  April also saw Martin Horton-Eddison present his research on the Dark Net via video link to the 3^rd Semana Psicoactiva in Bogota, Colombia.

In May, the GDPO was delighted to welcome to Swansea Alex Stevens, Professor in Criminal Justice in the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research and Observatory Technical Advisor.  Alex not only spoke to MA students on the Department of Political and Cultural Studies (PCS) Public Policy Module but also gave an excellent presentation on ‘Being Human and the “Moral Sidestep”: Explaining government inaction on drug related deaths in the UK’ at a GDPO organised seminar. We hope Alex will be able to get across to Swansea again next year.

In June we were thrilled to welcome as a Swansea University colleague Dr Rick Lines.  While a GDPO Senior Research Associate for some time, Rick was appointed as Associate Professor within Swansea’s Hillary Clinton School of Law.  We look forward to developing various exciting projects when Rick is based in Swansea from September.  Coincidently, in June both Rick and Dave were invited participants at an OHCHR expert consultation meeting in Geneva.  This focused on the Implementation of Joint Commitments of UNGASS 2016 in addressing and countering the World Drug Problem about human rights.   Back in Swansea, June also saw Martin Horton-Eddison give a presentation on Participant Observation at a PGR Methods Workshop.  Here he spoke about his experiences at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March.       

The quarter was relatively busy in terms of publications.  These included  - as part of the Africa project  - Cannabis and the Drug Law in Tunisia A Reform Rooted in Social Justice Claims(GDPO Situation Analysis) by Khalid and Ghana Strives for a More Humane Drug Policy (GDPO Situation Analysis) by Maria-Goretti Ane.  Contributing to ongoing work on crypto-drug markets, Alois Afilipoaie  and Patrick Shortis authored another Situation Analysis, Crypto Market Enforcemnet New Strategy and Tactics while Mai Hla Aye wrote on Gender and Drugs in Myanmar(GDPO Situation Analysis).  The result of many months hard work by GDPO research associate Constanza Sanchez and Michael Collins (Drug Policy Alliance), GDPO was pleased to publish in June a Policy Brief Better to Ask Forgiveness Than Permission Spain’s Sub-national Approach to Drug.  It is the expectation that a Spanish language version will be available later in the year.  A result of the GDPO-APP project, we were also pleased to post a number of videosexamining various aspects of drug policy: Niamh Eastwood (Release), ‘A Quite Revolution: Drug Decriminalization Across the Globe’; Marie Nougier (IDPC), ‘Measuring the “World the “World Drug Problem”: ARQ Revision, beyond traditional indicators’; Julia Buxton (CEU & GDPO), ‘Dealing with Synthetics: Time to reframe the narrative’.  Finally Dave published a short piece in Addiction, ‘Canada, Cannabis Legalization and Uncertainty around the United Nations Drug Control Conventions.’

GDPO Quarterly News: January 2018 – April 2018

The new year started on a happy note with the graduation to Doctor of Philosophy in Politics of GDPO PhD student Joe Dixon.  We look forward to the publication of Joe’s research on ‘Afghanistan’s Wicked problems: COIN & CN in Afghanistan 2002-11’.

Continuing with the doctoral theme, January also saw Dave serve as a member of a PhD external examinations committee at the University of Kent.  The thesis, ‘Regulating Cannabis Market: The Construction of an Innovative Drug Policy in Uruguay’ by Clara Musto, was submitted to the University of Kent and the University of Utrecht in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy after following the Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Programme in Cultural and Global Criminology. The second part of the examination process is due to take place later in the year in Utrecht. We wish Clara all the best for that viva and in her post-doctoral career. Still on the issue of cannabis, but from a slightly different perspective, Axel presented a paper on medical cannabis cultivation in the UK at the Northern Irish Medical Cannabis Summit.  The following month Dave was in New York at the International Peace Institute (IPI) for a panel presentation around the launch of a new report Aligning Agendas - the drive for policy coherence. Published by IPI, the report was the result of over a year’s work by the Institute convened International Expert Group on Drug Policy Metrics of which he is a member.  February also saw Khalid participate in several events, including the 3^rd Brandenburg Forum on drug and development policies, Lubennau, and the Santa Marta Dialogue on the present and future of global drug policies, Santa Marta.

In March the GDPO was once again busy in Vienna at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.  Among other things, this involved co-sponsorship of a side-event on drug policy metrics and the European launch of Aligning Agendas as well as an event titled ‘Regulating Cannabis in Accord with International Law’.  Co-sponsored by GDPO, the Transnational Institute and the Washington Office on Latin America, this marked the launch of a major new publication, Modernization of Treaty Regimes, a Report coming out of the TNI-GDPO-WOLA Expert Seminar in Amsterdam in October 2017.   Moderated by John Walsh (WOLA), the well-attended session involved a panel comprising Dave, Martin Jelsma, Annette Henry (Cannabis Licencing Authority, Jamaica) and Allyn Taylor (University of Washington School of Law). Prof. Taylor’s remarks can be found here.

In addition to Balancing Treaty Stability and Change the quarter saw several other GDPO related publications.  These included Dave Bewley-Taylor & Marie Nougier Measuring the ‘world drug problem’ ARQ Revision (GDPO Working Paper) Dave Bewley-Taylor and Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Modernization of Treaty Regimes(GDPO Working Paper)andDave Bewley-Taylor, Tom Blickman, Martin Jelsma and John Walsh, ‘Canada’s Next Steps on Cannabis and the UN Drug Treaties’, in iPolitics. Khalid also published a Commentary in the Journal of the International Aids Society, ‘HIV and AIDS among adolescents who use drugs’  with Axel co-authoring with Gary Potter, ‘The three betrayals of the medical cannabis growing activist’ in the International Journal of Drug Policy. In terms of newspapers, Khalid had an article, ‘Cannabis : importer le modèle californien dans nos quartiers,’ published in Les Echos