Drugs, data and justice: Resisting algorithmic policing, building safety

When? 22 July 2026, 15:00–16:30 CEST / 09:00–10:30 New York / 10:00–11:30 Brasília / 18:30–20:00 New Delhi

Where? Online. Register here: bit.ly/DrugsDataJustice

Live translation: English ⇄ Portuguese

This roundtable explores how artificial intelligence and other digital technologies reshape, and are reshaped by, drug policies. Addressing related harms in terms of racialised surveillance, algorithmic policing and exclusion from public services, the session also invites participants to chart community-driven responses, forms of resistance and alternative pathways.

Drug policy reform advocates, harm reduction practitioners, and people who use drugs are rarely part of debates on digital rights and accountability, even if directly concerned. This convening brings these voices together with digital rights activists and sister movements to build cross-movement understanding and seed transnational collaboration.

Following introductions and case studies that reflect advocacy, resistance and accountability strategies in relation to algorithmic policing, biometric surveillance, and welfare profiling, participants will be invited to identify:

• current digital implementations and related harms (ex. predictive policing, biometric surveillance, service denial);
• existing advocacy and accountability strategies (ex. oversight, litigation, narrative change campaigns); and,
• community-driven beneficial tech applications (ex. drug contamination alerts, policing raid warnings, digital literacy efforts).

Bringing together drug policy reform, harm reduction, digital rights and sex workers’ rights perspectives, the session aims to distil actionable strategies and lay the groundwork for sustained cross-movement collaboration to respond to the growing securitisation and surveillance justified in the name of drug control.

The discussion will be facilitated by:

• Carla Vreche (Conectas Direitos Humanos) .
• Juan Fernández Ochoa (International Drug Policy Consortium - IDPC).
• Romain Lanneau (Statewatch).
• Trajche Janushev (Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network - SWAN) .