Festival of Research: Raw Opium: Documentary Screening & Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Panel Discussion

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This free-to-attend public lecture forms part of Swansea University’s third annual Festival of Research, which takes place from Wednesday, February 19 until Saturday, February 22.

Festival of Research 2014

Swansea University’s Research Institute of Arts and Humanities (RIAH) and the Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO) are to host a documentary screening and panel discussion about global drug policy.

Date: Wednesday 19 February

Time

  • 4.30pm - Documentary Screening:Raw Opium: Pain, Pleasure, Profits
  • 6pm - Interval
  • 6.30pm - Panel discussion and audience Q&A:The Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Global to Local

Panel members

  • Professor Julia Buxton (Chair) – GDPO Senior Research Officer and Professor of Comparative Politics, School of Public Policy at the Central European University, Budapest
  • Baroness Molly Meacher, Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Drug Policy Reform
  • Ifor Glyn – Chief Executive, SANDS CYMRU
  • Mike Trace, Chief Executive, The Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt), Chair, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) steering group, former Deputy UK Anti-Drug Coordinator
  • Professor David Bewley-Taylor – GDPO Director and Professor of International Relations and Public Policy, Swansea University

Venue: Taliesin Arts Centre

Admission: Free of charge, all welcome and no booking necessary

Raw Opium is a wide-ranging feature documentary about a commodity that has tremendous power – both to ease pain and to destroy lives. Building upon many of the issues raised by the film, the accompanying panel discussion aims to explore the complexities of the illicit market in heroin and other controlled drugs as an area of public policy concern.

Reflecting the truly inter-disciplinary nature and expansive transnational scope of this topic, discussion will give attention to the challenges to policies and programmes within production, transit and consumer markets, including those in places as distant as Afghanistan and those closer to home. Underpinned by the GDPO’s belief in the need for an evidence and rights based approach to policy formulation, the panel will question law enforcement dominated strategies and engage with debates about health-oriented approaches and shifts away from the so-called ‘war on drugs’.

For more information about Swansea University’s Festival of Research contact Andrea Buck on 01792 606669, email: a.j.buck@swansea.ac.uk. 

 

Visitors attending Festival of Research events by car are encouraged to use the Recreation Ground Car Park, Mumbles Road.