The 34 course participants who traveled to Budapest to participate in the Anticipating Drug Legalization course on May 13-15 included representatives from NGOs; officials from public health institutions, justice ministries, and parliamentary bodies; analysts; and academics. In his welcoming remarks, SPP Founding Dean Wolfgang H. Reinicke noted that the course reflects SPP’s mission to bridge the gap between academia and policy practice.
“Our courses always attract a diverse group of participants,” commented Bernhard Knoll-Tudor, director of the Global Policy Academy at the School of Public Policy, “but I think this course set a record in terms of diversity – not just in terms of the number of professions that were represented, but nationalities as well.” One of those participants was Asmin Fransiska who has been coordinator for the Indonesian Coalition for Drug Policy Reform (ICDPR) in Germany since 2009. Fransiska said that the course had enhanced her understanding of the future of drug policy and put her in touch with people from around the world who were working hard to make better drug policy.
Another course participant, Roman Makhkha, who is an expert from the OSCE, commented, ‘The course provided participants with the tools they need for better understanding the existing global drug policy and anticipating future approaches for change. In particular, it has added value with regard to the preparation process for the special session of the UN General Assembly on the world drug problem in 2016 (UNGASS 2016).” Makukha agreed with Fransiska that one of the most valuable elements of the course was the establishment of a global network of experts to develop future drug policy. He expressed the hope that the course would become a platform for bringing together government policy makers, and representatives from civil society and private sector.
The course was funded by OSF’s Global Drugs Policy Program, which has been in the vanguard of promoting rights-based approaches in drug policy. Course Director Julia Buxton stressed the importance of thinking ahead about the long-term consequences of drug legalization initiatives, highlighting the responsibility of reform advocates to minimize harm and mitigate risks associated with policy change processes. In sessions jointly delivered with Rick Lines, executive director of Harm Reduction International, Buxton addressed the importance of historical context focusing on the constraints and opportunities presented by the international drug treaty framework administered by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).
Buxton spoke strongly in favor of a more rigorous approach to drug policy analysis, and urged the importance of incorporating tools of trend assessment and scenario planning. Tom Wales, previously of Oxford Analytica, delivered a day-long session on heuristic bias, cognitive pitfalls, anticipatory planning, and predicting future trends in drug policy. He noted that experts are usually the most unreliable predictors of events, a sobering conclusion for this gathering of experts.