The 3rd European Chemsex Forum will be a 2 ½ day, multi-disciplinary event, in Paris, 14-16 November 2019

Activities include an evening opening with key note speeches on Thursday, the Data and Evidence Day on Friday, and the Community Mobilisation Day on Saturday

The draft programme, based on latest research and community activities, will be announced in late July

Up to 250 participants will participate, coming from across WHO Europe and across the spectrum of people and professions impacted by ChemSex, including people engaged or formerly engaged in chemsex; public health, sexual health, HIV and hepatitis service users, health workers, clinicians, researchers and campaigners; drug and counselling services; policy makers and commissioners; community leaders, volunteers, and members of the community

We encourage participation by people who engage in chemsex including gay men, MSM, trans and non-binary people. We encourage participation by people from Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus regions. We encourage participation by people from locations where chemsex use has been identified but there is not yet adequate chemsex response

3rd European Chemsex Forum

The Permanent Mission of Luxembourg to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations and the civil society organizations (CSOs) listed above, invite you to an interactive panel discussion exploring the important role played by CSOs in supporting effective data collection, research, and analysis with respect to drugs and drug-related matters. The panel will also discuss building bridges between CSOs and the UN, in particular through the newly-formed UN System Coordination Task Team, in order to better support these efforts.

Luciana Pol, Centre for Legal and Social Studies (Argentina)

Daniel Werb, Centre for Drug Policy Evaluation (Canada)

Steph Sherer, International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (Czech Republic) Martin Jelsma, Transnational Institute (Netherlands)

Chair: Heather Haase, New York NGO Committee on Drugs (USA)

Opening remarks by H.E. Mr. Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations.

RSVP essential: NewYorkNGOC@gmail.com (by midnight, Sunday 10th Nov)

The Role of Civil Society in Supporting UN System-wide coordination: research, data collection, and analysis in drug policy

The Paris Peace Forum continues to demonstrate that in a deteriorated international environment it is still possible to advance governance solutions, scale-up projects and launch new initiatives in peace & security, development, environment, new technologies, inclusive economy, or culture & education.

For its second edition, the Call for Projects of the Paris Peace Forum has received more than 700 project submissions from 115 countries and led by a wide panel of actors of global governance, such as states, international organizations, NGOs, companies, foundations, philanthropic organizations, development agencies, religious groups, trade unions, think tanks and universities.
The Selection Committee evaluated all submissions and made its choice based on a geographical and gender balanced representation.

Discover the projects that will be showcased at the next edition of the Forum on 11-13 November 2019 at la Grande Halle de La Villlette, in Paris.

IDPC and Support. Don't Punish at the Paris Peace Forum

The Support. Don't Punish campaign will be one of the 100 projects selected to be showcased at the Forum.

The IDPC Secretariat and Support. Don't Punish colleagues will share the experience of campaigners worldwide in advocating for drug policies based on health, human rights and development, and promoting social justice, gender equality, good governance, accountability and inclusiveness

If you are attending the Forum, check out the following activities in which the campaign and fellow drug policy reformers are involved:

Kicking the habit: Rethinking the war on drugs


Panel with Ann Fordham (International Drug Policy Consortium/Support. Don’t Punish), Camila Ruiz Segovia (Catalyst) and Khalid Tinasti (Global Commission on Drug Policy)

Rehab: shaping a more effective response to drug trafficking worldwide

Wednesday, 13 Nov. | 11:30-12:30 | Agora 1


Panel with Gunilla Carlsson (UNAIDS), Martha Delgado (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico), Ruth Dreifuss (Global Commission on Drug Policy), Svante Myric (City of Ithaca, US), Mhammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou (Graduate Institute, Geneva), Alexander Soros (OSF).

Support. Don’t Punish: People power to end the “war on drugs”


Project presentation by Juan Fernandez Ochoa (IDPC, Support. Don’t Punish)

Support. Don’t Punish: Local Actions, Global Voice

Throughout the Forum / Space for Solutions (Development)


Come visit our campaign stand and learn more about what you can do to end the “war on drugs”!

We will be showcasing testimonies from campaigners from all over the world. So, please don’t hesitate to send us your thoughts, below, on why the campaign has been an important resource for capacity building and mobilisation. We will share them in the campaign’s stand at the Forum.

Paris Peace Forum 2019

Hobart has changed substantially in the past decade, it is hardly recognisable both in cityscape and people. Much of this has come from surprising developments driven by locals - it just goes to show how much strategic investment can drive change at all levels. How could a different approach to investment in the alcohol and other drugs sector shape change in our field? Regulatory changes, shifting funding patterns from siloed provision to multi-disciplinary consortiums, innovations in treatment and research, could see our field in a very different place in just a few years. Advances, connections, and learning from this conference could have a far reaching impact on the lives of people engaging with substances into the future.

APSAD Hobart 2019 conference

The “war on drugs” is, in reality, a war on people that targets drug users, women, minorities, growers and other people on the margins of society.

Drug policies that rely on law enforcement have led to growing incarceration rates worldwide. We cannot fully address the impact of incarceration without considering some of its less visible victims: the families and, in particular, the children of men and women in prison.

Published and presented on the year of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the regional report 

) sits at a rarely-examined crossroads between incarceration, drug policy and children’s rights. The report analyses the impact of parental incarceration and presents a series of recommendations primarily based on 70 interviews carried out with children who have relatives in prison for non-violent drug offenses in Latin America and the Caribbean.

It examines exposure to violence, feelings of loss, stigma, increasing poverty levels and the difficulty of maintaining a relationship with an incarcerated parent.

The regional report is a compilation of findings from eight national studies conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Uruguay and Panama.

The presentation will include experts and personally impacted individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean who were part of the production process of the report.

Presentation of the report "Childhood that matters"

The International Drug Policy Reform Conference is a biennial event that brings together people from around the world who believe that the war on drugs must end. More than 1,500 attendees representing over 80 countries joined us in Atlanta, GA in 2017 and we are primed for an even larger attendance when we bring the conference to St. Louis, MO in 2019!

Reform attendees have the opportunity to spend three days interacting with people committed to finding alternatives to the war on drugs while participating in sessions given by leading experts from around the world. Don’t miss the opportunity to be a part of this event.

The National Scholarships application will open on June 3, 2019. Please email scholarships@drugpolicy.org if you have any questions before then.

SSDP students do not need to submit an application to DPA’s National Scholarships program. Instead email outreach@ssdp.org expressing your interest in this scholarship and your staff member will be in touch about making CAT point arrangements.

The International Scholarships application is now open! If you are based outside of the U.S. and need financial assistance to attend the Reform Conference, consider applying here. Submission deadline is June 17th!

International Drug Policy Reform Conference 2019

The war on drugs in Brazil has been a long-time issue, which consequences are severe for the population in the favelas and for policemen. As reported by the National Justice Council (CNJ), one in four prisoners were convicted of drug theft or trafficking and, besides imprisonment, the policy of drug repression also generates deaths. Each day, 154 people die, on average, victims of homicide in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Violence Map. Bolsonaro promises to take action against drugs more severely and give a “license to kill” for the policeman in Favelas. Therefore the expectation is for the situation to get worse under his government. The Reconvexo Collective invites you to an evening of movie exhibitions and a roundtable to discuss the consequences of the war on drugs in Brazil for the lives of the black population, for human rights and for democracy.

War on drugs, war on democracy: Brazilian Black lives on target

The 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem set the tone for the drug policy reform debate, but moving forward, many fear that this tone will be lost. In this 3-day course we will explore questions such as: What should the new direction post-2019 be for the future UN governance of international drug policy? How can different actors contribute to a global process in order to ensure that drug policies improve rather than harm the health and welfare of people? What should the role of civil society and user networks be in the international debate on drug policies?

Drug policy, diplomacy and public health: Negotiating the health dimension of drug policies

This interactive 1 hour webinar will discuss the need for women mainstreaming in harm reduction organisations and networks of people who use drugs, and so audiences involved in such organisations and networks are particularly encouraged to register.

The panelists will explore women responsive harm reduction initiatives; meaningful involvement of women who use drugs; recruitment of women to drug user networks; feminist perspective; strategic information; mainstreaming inclusion of women in organisational development; human resource management and programming; indicators and data collection – and their use in advocacy; gender intersectionality; and enablers for mainstreaming women's inclusion.

Reframing the place of women in harm reduction organisations and networks of people who use drugs

Lisbon Addictions 2019, the third European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies, is a multidisciplinary conference that provides a forum for networking across the addictions.

Over 1 200 participants from 70 countries attended Lisbon Addictions 2017. The conference sold out several months before the event. See presentations and posters.

Following the renewed success of the conference initiative, the organisers have decided to launch Lisbon Addictions 2019 (#LxAddictions19), which will take place in the Lisbon Congress Centre from 23–25 October 2019.

Once again, the event will be jointly organised by the Portuguese General Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD), the journal Addiction/Society for the Study of Addiction, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)and the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors (ISAJE).

The overarching theme for 2019 is 'The future of addictions: new frontiers for policy, practice and science'. The conference will therefore showcase cutting-edge research to help characterise, understand and respond to addiction and addictive behaviours

#LxAddictions19 will provide opportunities for early-stage reseachers to enhance their careers. The Programme and Organising Committees have therefore planned to hold dedicated showcase sessions, developed a new concept for poster sessions and will further promote networking activities and mentoring to meet the needs of these participants.

23 October 2018: Registration and call for abstracts open

28 February 2019: Deadline for early-bird registration fee (EUR 400)

29 June 2019: Deadline for late-breaking abstracts

30 June 2019: Deadline for regular registration (EUR 500)

1 July–25 October 2019: Late registration (online and on-site – EUR 600)

Lisbon Addictions 2019

The US is in the midst of a major public health crisis. Tens of thousands of deaths are directly attributable to overdose over the past two decades and no end is in sight. Reeling from the failures of the “war on drugs”, many argue for new approaches grounded more firmly in public health and human centred drug policies. Join some of the world’s leading experts on this topic to learn how the US can learn the lessons of past policy failures and policies that provide greater hope to help end the overdose crisis.

Ending the US Overdose Crisis: Lessons from other times and places

The 5th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH2019) will present a multi-focused Conference Program that will address three main areas:

Substantive issues – all the particular issues in which the police-public health partnership is important

Organisational issues – how to best achieve optimal and sustainable partnerships

Reflection and methodological issues – creating a science of the public health and law enforcement intersection

LEPH2019 is another important step in further understanding the intersection between police and other law enforcement personnel and those individuals and organisations delivering public health programs in the community. A key theme for LEPH2019 will be 

 which builds on previous conferences that described and analysed the issues, examined a range of actual and possible responses and touched on leadership in policy and practice.

LEPH2019 aspires to contribute to the achievement of the Rio+20 Conference’s 

LEPH2019 will help promote healthy lives and well-being leading to peaceful and inclusive societies by an integrated approach of law enforcement and public health (SDG 3)

LEPH2019 will help build police-public health partnerships that are effective, accountable and inclusive (SDG 16)

The achievement of effective public health outcomes is often the result of intersecting law enforcement and public health policy that underpins integrated practice. Law enforcement, especially through the activities of police forces, has a crucial but often unacknowledged role in the protection and promotion of public health. This means that there is an inadequate approach to research and investigation of ways in which law enforcement can be most effectively engaged and be most effective in carrying out their public health role.

As for all LEPH conferences, marginalised communities are an important priority theme of LEPH2019. Marginalisation is the enemy of security and health. Too often around the world police have been agents of marginalisation. Inclusive policing works to overcome marginalisation, by according equal or greater attention and support to populations at increased risk because they are excluded and have unequal access to justice.

Public health is an active partner in crime prevention as well as a range of other complex social issues like mental health, infectious diseases, road trauma, community and domestic violence, alcohol and drugs and disaster management. As well as providing ‘State of the Art’ updates from national and international experts in both police and public health, LEPH2019 will bring together experience and examples of successful partnership initiatives from the widest range of settings.

Past Events