Contemporary issues in drug policies: A comparison between Europe and North America

Oct 08, 2019

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Anti-prohibition movements are growing in a number of large democratic states, pushing us to rethink our relationship to drugs, the status of these substances in society, and to create a new paradigm based on global social transformations.

In this talk, Marie Jauffret-Roustide will analyze three contemporary issues affecting both North America and Europe: the opioid crisis, the creation of drug consumption rooms, and emerging modes of political cannabis regulation. Throughout the lecture, she will show the extent to which the fundamental categories we use to think of drug policy should be questioned. She will discuss how the line between drug and medication is thinning, how the political model of prohibition is largely ineffective, and how the boundaries between prevention, harm reduction, and addiction care are being redrawn. 

Marie Jauffret-Roustide is a scholar of social and political science. A lead investigator at the Inserm laboratory in Paris, France, her research program aims to investigate issues of risk management in the context of addiction and the concept of risk environment among drug users, as well as to analyze political models of drug policy.

The French Scholars Lecture Series is a partnership between the Consulate General of France and the Peter Wall Institute to bring leading French scholars to UBC.

This event is co-organized by the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.