SPP Associate Dean Julia Buxton participated in a panel discussion at the U.S. International Peace Institute (IPI) on November 16. The event, entitled "Sustainable Development and the World Drug Problem," was chaired by IPI Director of Research and Publications Adam Lupel. The panel included Jürg Lauber, permanent representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, Tenu Avafia from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Summer Walker of the United Nations University (UNU).
Buxton's presentation recapped the arguments detailed in Drugs and Development: The Great Disconnect, which was published in January, and has been cited in two subsequent UNDP and UNU publications, Addressing the Development Dimensions of Drug Control and What Comes After the War on Drugs. She addressed the bias in the international drug control system, arguing that this prioritizes control of coca/cocaine and opium/heroin rather than the more widely consumed synthetic drugs (methamphetamine, amphetamine, and MDMA) manufactured in North America and Europe.
Her presentation went on to highlight the regressive impacts of coca and opium poppy reduction strategies in poor, unequal, and fragile countries of the Global South. She emphasised that Alternative Development programs intended to bring drug crop cultivators into the formal economy were poorly designed, conflict and gender insensitive, and lacked an evidence base or effective monitoring and evaluation processes. Buxton argued that these programs responded to drug crop reduction not development metrics, and that they are increasingly and inappropriately being reframed as quick impact projects (QUIPS) driven by security not development concerns.
The IPI panel discussion can be viewed here.