The Portuguese Decriminalization Model in the European Context
Year
2011 - Los Angeles, CA
Speakers
Facilitator: Craig Reinarman, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Thanasis Apostolou, Advisory Board Member, Association Diogenis, Netherlands/Greece
Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes, Drug Policy Modelling Program, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University New South Wales, Australia
Ted Goldberg, Professor, University of Gävle, Solna, Sweden
Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, Director, Global Drug Policy Program, Open Society Foundations, Warsaw, Poland
Sebastian Saville, Executive Director, Release, London, U.K.
Valentin Simionov, Executive Director, Romanian Harm Reduction Network, Bucharest, Romania
Georg Wurth, Chairman, German Hemp Association, Berlin, Germany
Portuguese drug policy is widely heralded as an international model. How do we situate the Portuguese experience within a broader international context to examine its significance for European and global drug policy? Is Portugal a model that other countries can replicate? Should we be concerned about the Dutch back-tracking? What’s going on in Greece, where the Prime Minister recently introduced a decriminalization proposal? Is Denmark emerging as a new leader? And what’s the evolving role of the European Union?