26 June 2020: webinar on Future of Drugs Policing

2020 Support. Don’t Punish campaign in Amsterdam envisioned future drug policy scenarios, this time focusing on law enforcement.

During our free webinar organised on the Global Day of Action, which is officially the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, we collectively focused on the future of drug policing and imagined effective ways for drug policy reform.

 

You can find the recording of the webinar here: https://youtu.be/b1MPlq_gh2U

The webinar was moderated by Dutch journalist Thijs Roes.

Speakers for the webinar included international experts:
– Neil Woods, ex-undercover drug police operative and current chairman of LEAP UK (Law Enforcement Action Partnership)

– Dr. Larissa J. Maier, post-doctoral fellow at the UCSF Department of Clinical Pharmacy (USA) and part of the Core Research Team of Global Drug Survey (GDS)

– Prof. Adam Winstock, addiction psychiatrist and founder of Global Drug Survey

Clement Bofa-Oppong, member of the board of directors in Students for Sensible Drug Policy & National Students Coordinator for SSDP GHANA

Prof. Nick Crofts, director of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health (CLEPH)


Our original aim of the action was to support the growing global movement of releasing non-violent drug prisoners as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we will still briefly revisited the 2014 Amsterdam Declaration on Police Partnerships for Harm Reduction, in light of the Black Lives Matter protests happening around the world against police brutality, especially in the USA, we decided to switch our focus.

Releasing current drug prisoners is not enough if law enforcement continues to use the “War on drugs” as a vehicle to justify racially motivated, and often lethal, use of force. During the webinar we will engage in a critical reflection regarding this also in the Dutch context.

This webinar is organised by Legalize Nederland and co–hosted by TNI Drugs and Democracy Belangenvereniging MDHG and several other NGO´s working for drug policy reform.

As part of this years Global Day of Action in Amsterdam Mainline International will also premiere Dutch Drugs Stories – Expo as part of the Poppi: Drugs Museum Amsterdam. The expo showcases the development of the Dutch drug scene from the 1990´s to present day users. See more info here; https://vimeo.com/423657130

#supportdontpunish #Amsterdam #freethemnow #blacklivesmatter #verbiedenisgeenoplossing #ondermijning