The Graduate Institute, Maison de la Paix | Geneva
Thia dialogue session was organised by the Global Health Centre and Groupement Romand d'Etudes des Addictions and was supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The debate on drug policy reform has gained momentum in the last few years to reduce the harm caused by drugs through health- and human rights-based approaches. However, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs in April 2016 only constituted a first step in the process to rebalance the current international drug policy control regime. At the same time, innovative initiatives in relation to harm reduction, criminal justice reform, and drugs regulation are being explored and implemented at the local level in different countries. What are the implications of a bottom-up approach to drug policy reform? How do these strategies inform the debate at the global level? How can a coherent, multisectoral approach be fostered?
These and other questions will be addressed in a dialogue session with Ethan Nadelmann, Founder and Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, organised by the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute and Groupement Romand d'Etudes des Addictions.
Ethan Nadelmann is the Founder and Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the leading organisation in the United States (US) promoting alternatives to the war on drugs. He received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. from Harvard and taught at Princeton University for seven years. He has authored two books on the internationalisation of criminal law enforcement and written extensively for academic, policy and media publications. Ethan and his colleagues have played pivotal roles in most major drug policy reforms in the US on issues including marijuana policy, sentencing, asset forfeiture, drug treatment, access to sterile syringes to reduce HIV/AIDS, and prevention of overdose fatalities – and also assisted with similar reforms abroad. Ethan plays a key role as drug policy advisor to George Soros and other prominent philanthropists as well as elected officials ranging from mayors, governors and state and federal legislators in the US to presidents and cabinet ministers outside the US.