Alex Stevens: Drug Policy Constellations

Join the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and Alex Stevens for a guest seminar on the role of power and morality in the making of national and international policy on illicit drugs.

Abstract

Calls are often made for evidence-based policy. Alex Stevens' research on drug policy suggests that there is no such thing. Rather, policies are based on clashing and overlapping moralities, converging material interests, the deployment of political and social forms of power, and moving affective narratives. In his 2024 book on Drug Policy Constellations, Stevens presented a theoretical approach and an empirical method for analysing these complex processes. In this talk he will present this policy constellations approach. He will use interviews, ethnography, discourse analysis, natural language processing, and social network analysis to explains the outcomes of policy processes, using the cases of the 2018 legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes in the UK, and the controversial inclusion of the term 'harm reduction' in international drug policy at the 2024 UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. 

About the Speaker

Alex Stevens is Professor in Criminology at the Centre for Criminological Research, University of Sheffield. He is a former member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and President of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy. He is now on the board of the Criminal Justice Alliance and of Harm Reduction International. He chairs the Drug Science Enhanced Harm Reduction Working Group. He has published widely on issues of drugs, crime and public health. His latest book, Drug Policy Constellations: The Role of Power and Morality in the Making of Drug Policy in the UK, was published by Bristol University Press in 2024.

How to Attend

Please register in advance via Tickettailor.