Programme

Sir Elton John is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 26 gold, 38 platinum or multi-platinum and 1 diamond albums over 50 Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. He holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, which sold over 33 million copies. After more than 50 years on the road, Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour encompassing 5 continents, and over 350 dates to end in 2021. To date, Elton has delivered more than 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970. Last year, a fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life, 'Rocketman' was released with high acclaim and his first and only autobiography ‘Me’ was published and instantly a New York Times bestseller. Among the many awards and honours bestowed upon him are six GRAMMYs, including a GRAMMY Legend award, a Tony and two Oscars, a Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards between 1973 and 2001.

Elton has been acknowledged for his philanthropic and music contributions with a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II and most recently, Elton received the Legion d’Honneur from President Macron, the Companion of Honour in the UK, won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for the Best Original Song in ‘Rocketman’. In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation after losing many friends and loved ones to the AIDS epidemic. Today, after years of fundraising, advocacy, and funding innovative grants, the Foundation is the 6th largest independent AIDS funder globally. Crucially, Elton and the Foundation are committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent people, mainly gay men, people who inject drugs, transgender women and adolescents from accessing the life-saving treatment and prevention available around the world and to fight the AIDS epidemic with love and kindness so people feel accepted, involved and loved. Elton has travelled from South Africa, Ukraine, Armenia, across the US and to many other countries as well as speaking at many International AIDS conferences to use his platform and influence to push, persuade and demand change and care for people at risk or living with HIV and is committed to not leave anyone behind in the AIDS epidemic.

As CEO of Rocket Entertainment and chairman of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, David Furnish is an entrepreneur with a global and strategic outlook occupying a unique intersection of philanthropy, film, music and theatre. As Elton’s manager, David is the architect and leader for the recent extraordinary success of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road worldwide tour, as producer of ‘Rocketman’ the fantasy musical motion picture of Elton John’s life which won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and Best Original Song, an Oscar for Best Original Song and received four British Academy Film Award nominations, Elton’s autobiography ‘Me’ and executive producer of the widely acclaimed theatrical show of Billy Elliot: The Musical.

A tireless campaigner, Mr Furnish is a leading voice in the worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS. He has led the Elton John AIDS Foundation for over 20 years and travels across the globe to meet people at risk and living with HIV first-hand and community groups, doctors and activists to raise the attention of epidemic and builds partnerships with major companies to fund innovative programming and involve the mass public in support of the Foundation. He has spearheaded numerous fundraisers for the Foundation including the memorable White Tie & Tiara, the Academy Awards Viewing Party, Midsummer Party and took on the physical challenge of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise funds and awareness as he reached the summit on World AIDS Day. David has met with global political figures to influence policy shifts and global financing for the AIDS epidemic by sharing the personal stories and challenges that he witnesses on his global travels with the Foundation. David recently led the strategic amalgamation of two separate Foundations into one global powerhouse for more impact to end the AIDS epidemic. To date, the Elton John AIDS Foundation is the 6th largest independent AIDS funders globally and has saved the lives of over 5 million of the most marginalised groups infected with HIV and raised awareness of HIV amongst more than 100 million people.

Naomi is the Executive Director of Harm Reduction International. She brings more than 15 years of international experience at the intersection of law, harm reduction, HIV and human rights.

From 2014-2017, Naomi worked for the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program, leading a portfolio of funding and policy engagement that supported civil society to challenge the negative impact of drug policy on access to controlled medicines, and strengthen access to justice for people who use drugs.

Between 2009 and 2014, Naomi worked in a regional capacity for the HIV and Health Law Program at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO); posted in Jakarta, Kathmandu, then Kampala. In partnership with local organisations in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea, Naomi implemented programs advancing the rights of populations vulnerable to HIV via legal services and national human rights mechanisms. Naomi spent the first five years of her career practising law in Australia, in the private sector and as a pro bono legal adviser at community centres.

Naomi is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group to the UN on HIV and Drug Use, a member of the Global Fund Technical Review Panel for Human Rights and Gender, and a member of the World Health Organization Guidelines Group on 'Ensuring Balance in National Policies on Controlled Substances.' 

Mr Vargas Llosa is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

Ms Sanchez leads Mexico United Against Crime, is a global advocate for drug policy reform and respected commentator on citizen security, justice and human rights.

Welby has been teaching yoga for more than 10 years. He is an experienced practitioner who focuses on well-being of body and mind and movements awareness. 

Based in Indonesia, he is teaching yoga and pilates for beginners to advanced students. A former head teacher in Fitness First Jakarta for five years, he will guide you to find the joy of discovering the gifts that yoga can bring to your life: the delight of moving in harmony with your breaths. 

Give yourself an opportunity to join his class to experience mind-body connection. Yoga can help you to improve mental health and overall sense of wellbeing.

Drink and Drugs News (DDN) is the free magazine for everyone working with and interested in drugs, harm reduction and fair treatment. Printed each month and available online at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com.

George Charlton is an avid Harm Reductionist who works across the UK developing projects in direct partnership with people who use drugs and those impacted by addiction. He is a director and co-founder of the Foundations Harm Reduction Union.

George was directly impacted by addiction for well over 15 years finding himself on the wrong side of the law becoming involved in crime, drug dealing and wider criminal activity which resulted in him spending several years incarcerated within the the UK prison system.

George trained as a therapist in 2003 and qualified with a Diploma in person cantered counselling practice in 2005 before going on to complete a Master of Arts in Social Sciences and Health at Durham University in 2006. He is the UK’s only independent Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) Trainer and Supervisor to be endorsed by CRAFT Founder Dr Robert J Meyers from the University of New Mexico. George works as an independent trainer and consultant across the UK developing and coproducing innovative and dynamic peer to peer Naloxone Training and supply programs in partnership with people who use drug, he believes wholeheartedly in putting people with lived and living experiences of addiction front and centre at the heart of all his work. For his commitment to working in the field of addictions George was recognised with the prestigious accolade of UK Skills National Training Award winner presented by Joanna Lumley at the Guild Hall in London.

Lee Collingham is a 52-year-old drug user representative and advocate from Nottingham in the UK. Lee has been involved and worked in the substance misuse field since 2001, starting as a volunteer and in various roles representing and speaking on behalf of his peer group, and has won multiple awards for drug-user-led campaigns. For the last decade Lee has been involved with the awareness and distribution of naloxone. 

Strategy Coordinator (Drug Death Prevention) Scottish Drugs Forum

Kirsten leads Scottish Drugs Forum’s work on drug death prevention. She is a mental health nurse and has a background of working in community drug treatment.

Her work involves developing Scotland’s national naloxone programme and liaising with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships regarding local drug death prevention action planning.

She is also a co-host of SDF’s podcast, Drugs Uncut.

Susie is passionate about sharing simple, nurturing practices for less stress and more peace of mind. She has been teaching evidence-based ways to manage stress for over 10 years and is the founder of Lilo Wellness. 
Susie also has a Masters of Public Health, worked as a Registered Nurse for more than 20 years and is an experienced mindfulness and yoga teacher.
With lived experience of self-medication with drugs to help manage ADHD and related mental health problems, Susie understands the demanding and important role of drug and alcohol counsellors. She also understands first-hand that by developing habits for mental health ourselves we can model these skills to patients and clients so that they can promote their own mental wellbeing. 
 

Ayu Oktariani is the National Coordinator of Indonesia Positive Women Network. She has been living with HIV for twelve years, and has since been a fearless, dedicated advocate for human rights and gender equality.  Follow her on Twitter (@ayuma_morie) and her mandala art account on Instagram (@ayuma_mandala).

Colleen is the Deputy Director and Public Health Lead at Harm Reduction International. She has 23 years’ experience as a Director, Project Manager, and Technical Advisor in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, gender, human rights, challenging operating environments, and community systems strengthening, working to deliver access to essential health services. She has worked in programs globally and has lived and worked in Australia, Kenya, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, the Kingdom of Tonga and the USA. 

Matt Wall is a member of the Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO), as well as an Associate Professor of Politics and Head of the Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations at Swansea University in Wales.

John Melhus is Project Leader at the Norwegian Association for Humane Drug Policies and also organises with the European Network of People who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD).

Bernice Apondi is Policy Manager at Voices of Community Action and Leadership-Kenya (VOCAL-Kenya).

Vicki Hanson is a member of the of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Cannabis Research at the University of the West Indies, in Jamaica.

Kojo Koram is a writer and an academic, teaching at the School of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London. Born in Accra, Ghana and raised on Merseyside, he is now based in London. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in November 2011 and received his PhD in September 2017. In 2018, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities awarded his PhD the prestigious Julien Mezey Award.

In addition to his academic writing, he has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, Dissent, The Nation, and The Washington Post and has appeared on CNN and Sky News. He is the editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line (Pluto Press 2019).

Ash Sarkar is a senior editor at Novara Media and teaches at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.

Camille Barton is an artist and renegade researcher working on the intersections of embodiment and healing justice. Camille is the head of Ecologies of Transformation (2021 - 2023), a temporary masters programme at Sandberg Institute, exploring how art making and embodiment can facilitate social change. 

Camille is an advisor for MAPS, ensuring that psychedelic assisted therapies will be accessible to communities of color, most harmed by the war on drugs. In 2021 they taught a course on Somatics and Psychedelics for the Embody Lab and also presented at the Psychedelic Coalition for Health Symposium. In 2019, Camille was the project manager of the Psychedelic Medicine and Cultural Trauma Workshop, hosted by MAPS as a precursor to the first MDMA Psychotherapy training for therapists of color. They have written for Vice, Talking Drugs, the MAPS Bulletin and Double Blind on drug policy & racial justice and have presented on these issues at conferences including Psychedelic Science (2017), The International Drug Policy Reform Conference (2017 & 2019) and Harm Reduction International (2019). 

Dawn D. Davis is a mother, a wife, a small-business owner, co-editor of the Journal of Native Sciences, a founding member of Source Research Foundation, a Newe and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. She resides on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho with her family. She is an Indigenous Researcher and Educator focusing on Peyote [Lophophora williamsii] decline and conservation efforts. Dawn has shared her research among Indigenous, academic, ethnobotanical, and psychedelic audiences nationally and internationally.

Ifetayo Harvey is the Social Media Manager at Caring Across Generations. Prior to joining Caring Across Generations, Ifetayo worked at the Drug Policy Alliance for five years because of her passion for ending the war on drugs. Ifetayo comes from a family of seven children raised by her mother in Charleston, South Carolina. Ifetayo is the founder and board president of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective. Ifetayo is an outspoken advocate and writer in the drug policy reform space. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in history and African studies.

www.ifetayo.me 

Kristine Hill is Tuscarora, Beaver clan, with a home on the western door, the Tuscarora Nation, near Lewiston NY and the eastern door, Hudson NY. She is a practitioner of restorative practices in everyday life. Kristine is active with her home community, and chosen community to find the ways forward through trauma and healing by engaging and supporting relationships with people, plants and collective wisdom.

Alexis Martin is the development manager at Drug Policy Alliance, where she supports all functions of the development department.

Alexis was drawn to drug policy as an undergraduate student at Columbia University, as she sought work that allowed her to combine her knowledge gained from personal experience of the drug war, as well as her commitment to social justice and liberation.

This commitment was strengthened by a variety of internship, organizing, and work experiences, including working with the New York Civil Liberties Union as a Communications Intern, the War Resisters League as a Sara Bilezekian Organizing Intern, and with DPA’s close ally, VOCAL-NY, as a Civil Rights Organizing Intern. She was also a Research Assistant for Professor Samuel Roberts at Columbia University, and aided his work on the history of harm reduction in New York City. During the 2016 election, she was an Election Fellow for BYP100, registering young Black New Yorkers to vote and engaging them on Election Day and beyond.

Alexis is based in New York City, with roots in the Philadelphia area. She is especially indebted to the Black and Brown writers, organizers, and dreamers who have inspired her work. 

Rebeca is a multiethnic Brazilian-born LCSW with PhD in Clinical Psychology and Culture from Universidade de Brasília, Brazil. Her PhD dissertation dedicated to the long-term ritualistic use of ayahuasca and its relationship with substance use partners. 

Rebeca has served on the Equity Subcommittee for Oregon’s Psilocybin Advisory Board and advised POC Psychedelic Collective and Plant Medicine Healing Alliance.  She offers social justice-oriented, trauma-focused, and culturally sensitive psychotherapy services at her private practice in Portland, Oregon (www.asecounselingservices.com). She is also a trainee of MAPS’s MDMA assisted psychotherapy.  

Diana Quinn ND (she/her) is a queer Chicana and licensed naturopathic doctor with over fifteen years of clinical experience in integrative mental health with a focus on trauma, somatics and mind-body medicine. Her work is grounded in healing justice, a framework that aims to intervene on generational trauma and bring collective practices to transform the consequences of oppression. She is dedicated to building equity, accessibility and structural competency in the field of psychedelics. She is a co-founder of the Psychedelic Liberation Collective, offering community care, anti-racism resources, and monthly integration circles for Black, Indigenous and people of color and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Dr. Quinn is a trainee of the California Institute for Integral Studies Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program, and is a member of Chacruna’s Racial Equity and Access Committee. She sits on boards and advisory committees for multiple organizations and initiatives focused on justice, equity, diversity and access (JEDI). 

Fay Dennis is a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work uses ethnographic and arts-based methods to explore drug effects including harm and pleasure as situated events. She is particularly interested in recognising pleasure where it is most neglected (e.g., injecting drug use) and using these experiences to disrupt dominant narratives and build more responsive treatment and policy.

Yarelix Estrada is a first-generation Central American, harm reduction researcher, and community outreach worker. Yarelix works as a City Research Scientist with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where her work is currently largely focused on the implementation of the first drug checking research pilot in New York City with local syringe service programs. She is also the director of the New York City Psychedelic Society, is on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Recovery Alliance, is on the Advisory Board of the media group Psymposia and is an organizer with the Urban Survivors Union and the Alliance for Collaborative Drug Checking. She received her Master of Science in Public Health in Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Chloe Sage is a harm reductionist and drug nerd who has been involved with drug checking and harm reduction for 17 years in advocacy, activism, drug checking training, coordinating drug checking/ harm reduction programs at festivals and at community agency settings. She co-wrote “Drug Checking at Music Festivals: A How to Guide” in 2016, and she has co-authored several papers on drug checking and harm reduction.  She is currently working on a five-part manual on a holistic approach to drug checking with the project DRED (Drug Resource Education).  She works as a harm reduction coordinator in British Columbia and is also a raver.

Greg Scott (facilitator) is professor of sociology at DePaul University in Chicago, where he teaches classes on consciousness, drugs, ethnography, art worlds, and visual studies. His work involves the use of filmmaking, photography, performance, and sculpture to document and advance harm reduction and drug user liberation. Greg has worked in harm reduction for the past 21 years and has used drugs for the past 40 years.

Photo by Nigel Brunsdon.

Ingrid Walker is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is a poly-drug user whose research and activism focus on changing drug policy to destigmatize drugs and the people who use them.

Sara Gael, MA, LPC - Harm Reduction Officer, MAPS

Sara received her master’s degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology at Naropa University. She has been working with MAPS since 2012, coordinating psychedelic harm reduction services at festivals and events worldwide with the Zendo Project. She served as the Director of Harm Reduction at MAPS from 2016-2020. Sara continues to train individuals and organizations in psychedelic harm reduction. She is a therapist for the MAPS clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD in Boulder. Sara has presented at conferences, universities, and events around the world. She serves as board president at DanceSafe and as the harm reduction advocate on the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review panel. Sara believes that developing a comprehensive understanding of psychedelic medicines through research, therapy, and education is essential for the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and the planet.

Eztestkits.com is the online market leader in presumptive drug testing kits and related products. Our company has been selling presumptive drug testing kits for over 10 years. Our Vision is to see drug purity testing kits being used at every gathering, festival and situation where illegal drugs are consumed, so that drug takers are empowered with the knowledge to be able to choose if they want to take the risk of taking an illegal substance.

Our mission is to help substance users make better decisions.
We educate drug users in the effects and risks of illegal drugs, from the huge variation in purity and contaminants through to commonly found cutting agents; what to look out for, and how to test.
Our motto is: ‘Just say know’.

Eztestkits are presumptive drug testing kits similar to those used by forensic laboratories, the Police and Customs and Excise, which have been repackaged and tailored to meet the demands of the public. They are easy to use; the tests can be carried out by anyone - you do not need a chemistry qualification to use them.

EZ Test Kits provide access to efficient, quick and portable testing for analysing samples. Any reaction and colour change that takes place after a sample has been added, can be checked against the colour charts included in the packaging to determine the presence of a specific substance, adulterant or purity level.

To find out more about EZTestKits visit www.eztestkits.com 

Sebastien Beguerie is one of the European expert leaders in the medical cannabis and CBD industry, with more than 10 years of experience in cannabis production, regulation, education, and advocacy. He is from Marseille, France and he did his MSc.degree in Plant Sciences at Wageningen University the Netherlands, sponsored by Bedrocan BV. In 2009, he co-founded the first French national medical Cannabis patient association called " Union Francophone pour les Cannabinoids en Médecine” (UFCM). Together with his association, he has been organisaing in Strasbourg (France) for 8 years in a row the only scientific medical Cannabis conference in France. In 2011, he founded his brand Alpha-Cat in Europe, manufacturing and distributing cannabinoid test kits and CBD wellness products.

Guy has been involved in drug science since 2010 and uses his background in chemistry to support the integration of science & technology with harm reduction. He is trustee for welfare charity Psycare UK and Director of Reagent Tests UK, which supports his work with The Loop. Guy maintains The Loop’s FTIR software and data systems and manages the lab volunteers and onsite labs.

Fiona is Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool, has conducted research on changing trends in drug use and drug policy for 3 decades, and has been going to clubs for even longer. Her frustration at lack of progress in UK drug policy combined with her genetic predisposition to contrariness led her to co-found the Loop in the UK in 2013 and in Australia in 2018, and she has been on a mission to enhance harm reduction and enable drug safety testing ever since.

Having enjoyed the 90’s rave scene, experimenting with drugs and not knowing what the risks were, Warren eventually ended up using Heroin for 10 years. After getting sepsis due to injecting contaminated Heroin with staphylococcus, he woke up in hospital not knowing what had happened. That was his turning point. He’s been free from Heroin now for 18 years and he’s used his knowledge and understanding for the past 11 years to work in drug treatment services. Warren also writes educational harm minimization content for EZTest.

Leila Reid, MSc, MPH, is Director of Corporate Services for The Hepatitis C Trust (HCT), a peer-led national charity working to prevent and address hepatitis C. She leads HCT’s research, evaluation, patient support, and operations work. Prior to this, Leila was Head of Public Health England’s London office, and spent ten years working in public health and policy in the UK and overseas. Leila holds Master’s degrees in International Public Policy and in Public Health, and is a Trustee of Amaudo, a UK-Nigeria mental health NGO.  

 

Bob's background is in the eduction sector in London. He became an Independent Advisor to the MPS as part of the LGBT Advisory Group in the aftermath of the Soho nail bombings in 1999. He has advised extensively  on complex problems mainly in the police and courts services. He has worked with British Transport Police and Counter Terrorism Community Advisory Group and on issues such as Stop and Search, firearms training and TASER deployment. Bob has a particular interest LGBT+ issues and has co authored reports on investigation of LGBT+  violent deaths and Alcohol and Drugs misuse in the LGBT+ communities. He recently was part of an MPS panel which reviewed nearly 60 deaths form GHB overdoses.

Exasperated by the quality and scope of gay men's health promotion, Patriic co-founded the Gay Men's Health Collective (GMHC) in 2010. Its projects include MENRUS.CO.UK (health and well-being website) PIP PAC (safer chemsex packs) and THREE FLYING PIGLETS (making short health-related films). Prior to this, Patriic has background in HIV prevention and gay men’s health, and wrote the ground-breaking “Hand Book for Gay Men” and “Together: Life, Love and Lube”. This acerbic bear of a man is as charming as he is curmudgeonly as he continues to innovate campaigns and resources to better connect gay men with their health and well-being needs.

Marios Atzemis is the Harm Reduction Officer of the Greek Association of PLWHIV, POSITIVE VOICE, and is also engaged in European networks regarding drug policies and HIV. 

Marios is also a board member of the Drug Policy Network of South East Europe, Steering Committee member of AIDS ACTION EUROPE and Civil Society Forum on Drugs representative of the European AIDS Treatment Group.

Above all, he is a peer-led harm reduction worker and a proud member of the drug user community.

Smriti Rana heads the Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement Division at Pallium India (https://palliumindia.org/), a national registered charitable Trust formed in 2003 that strives to alleviate health-related suffering. The organization demonstrates, educates and advocates for the integration of palliative care into mainstream healthcare.

She is trained as a psychologist and began her work in palliative care after losing several family members to protracted illnesses marked by the conspicuous absence of pain relief.

At Pallium India, Smriti leads programs which include central government engagement, international advocacy for safe access to essential opioids for pain relief, partnership building with social development and public health organizations, advocacy skill-building for people with lived experience, appropriate end of life care, and palliative care in humanitarian settings.

Smriti has presented the civil society perspective at the annual World Drug Report event hosted by the Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) in 2021, and is part of international expert groups working on access to Internationally Controlled Essential Medicines.

Through the Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences - a WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief - Smriti works closely with the WHO SEARO to improve access to opioid analgesics for pain relief in the South East Asia region.

Smriti was a member of the guideline development group for the WHO technical report which provides globally applicable palliative care indicators to assess and monitor the provision of palliative care services. This report was published at the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) pre-congress session on the 5th of October 2021.

Kojo Koram is a writer and an academic, teaching at the School of Law at Birkbeck College, University of London. Born in Accra, Ghana and raised on Merseyside, he is now based in London. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in November 2011 and received his PhD in September 2017. In 2018, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities awarded his PhD the prestigious Julien Mezey Award.

In addition to his academic writing, he has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, Dissent, The Nation, and The Washington Post and has appeared on CNN and Sky News. He is the editor of The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line (Pluto Press 2019).

Nazlee Maghsoudi is the Manager of the Policy Impact Unit at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. She has been deeply involved in the development of evidence-based drug policies at the grassroots, local, national, and international levels since 2013. Nazlee is Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the New York NGO Committee on Drugs, a global committee that supports civil society engagement on drug policy at the United Nations and represents 100+ organizations. She is also a Strategic Advisor at Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, having formerly acted as Chair of the Board of Directors. Nazlee is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University and a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto.

Alejandro obtained an LL.B. (’02) from ITAM in Mexico City and both an LL.M. (’03) and a J.S.D. (’06) from Yale Law School. He is a Professor of Law at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico, where he founded and headed the Interdisciplinary Drug Policy Program until 2017. Before becoming a full-time professor in 2009 he practiced constitutional litigation, specialising in high-impact, public interest cases before Mexico’s Supreme Court, most notably on abortion law, same-sex marriage, tobacco control and telecommunications law. He has published on issues ranging from legal education and history of legal thought, to sexual and reproductive rights, tobacco control, drug policy and free speech. He is currently the Director of CIDE’s Región Centro Campus in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Vicki J. Hanson has extensive experience in public policy and management, and drug policy in the region and internationally, and she has also conducted significant research in these areas. Her research work involves exploring the public policy issues to be resolved in a regulated cannabis (ganja) industry in the Caribbean, using Jamaica as the case study. Vicki currently work as the Retail Executive at a Cannabis Dispensary company in Jamaica. Vicki is a Justice of the Peace in the parish of St. Catherine. Vicki J. Hanson currently serves the Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), which is a global network of 192 NGOs that focus on issues related to drug production, trafficking and use. She is also currently the Research Coordinator in the virtual Interdisciplinary Centre for Cannabis Research (ICCR), and has contributed to the IDPC efforts at the 63rd Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) Committee. Vicki is working along with the team to ensure the inclusion of the Caribbean in the development of a Global Drug Policy Index (GDPI).

Isabel is currently the research coordinator of the Drug Policy area of the Center for Law, Justice and Society Studies (Dejusticia), with special emphasis on access to controlled medicines for palliative care and drug dependence, and implications of the peace process in drug policies in Colombia. Additionally, Isabel is a member of the Research Consortium of Drugs and the Law (CEDD). She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) in representation of the Latin American region.

The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.

Their mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.

Release is the national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law. The organisation, founded in 1967, is an independent and registered charity.

Through our services the team provides free non-judgmental, specialist advice and information to the public and professionals on issues related to drug use and to drug laws.

The organisation campaigns directly on issues that impact on our clients - it is their experiences that drive the policy work that Release does and why we advocate for evidence-based drug policies that are founded on principles of public health rather than a criminal justice approach.

Release believes in a just and fair society where drug policies should reduce the harms associated with drugs, and where those who use drugs are treated based on principles of human rights, dignity and equality.

Laura Garius (PhD) is the Policy Lead at Release. Release is the national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law in the UK. Laura is a criminologist and obtained her doctorate from Loughborough University. Prior to joining Release, Laura was a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Nottingham Trent University and lectured on the topic of drugs and society.  Laura has researched both alcohol and drug-related harm, and advocates for harm-reduction approaches, evidence-based drug policy, and racial and social justice. She runs the drug market monitoring network, which has been monitoring changes in the UK drug market during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and has co-authored a number of policy papers and policy responses evidencing the need for drug policy reform in the UK.

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah (PhD) is an academic, author and changemaker. He is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, an Affiliate Scientist at Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Race Equity Lead at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation and Director of Research for Cannabis Amnesty. He also serves as Chair of the Governing Board of Massey College.  Akwasi’s academic work has examined the racialized nature of drug law enforcement in North America. He has collaborated with major media outlets, such as the Toronto Star and Vice News to advance public dialogue about the perils of the war on drugs. As a changemaker, Akwasi has lobbied federal governments to revise their drug laws, and through his work with Cannabis Amnesty, has collaborated with some of the world’s largest cannabis companies to advance their corporate social responsibility mandates. He recently sat as a member of Health Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use.With an eye on social justice, he is currently exploring how cannabis legalization is being used as a means to redress the various harms caused by drug prohibition. He is the author of Waiting to Inhale: Race, Cannabis and the End of Prohibition with Tahira Rehmatullah (under contract with MIT Press).

Akwasi began his academic career in the United States at Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to becoming a professor, he held positions with Canada’s National Judicial Institute, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General. He frequently appears on radio and tv and publishes regularly in academic and popular forums. Akwasi’s work has recently been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, and The Globe and Mail.

Melissa Moore is the Director of Civil Systems Reform at the Drug Policy Alliance, where her two decades of experience managing media and campaign strategy for progressive non-profits focused on criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, poverty, community-led international development, and resource rights shape her role. Throughout her career, Melissa has worked toward social change by bridging policy analysis and targeted campaigns with direct engagement. She has trained advocates across the country and internationally on effective communications, helping activists leverage their voices to target key audiences to move campaigns and policy forward and make a lasting impact.

Melissa’s work at Drug Policy Alliance centers on shifting New York's approach to drug policy and repairing the harms that the war on drugs has caused to individuals and communities, particularly through her work leading the Start SMART campaign to legalize marijuana and contributions to the EndOverdoseNY campaign. Melissa's expertise and views on drug policy issues have been featured by CNN, the New York Times, The Hill, Forbes, NPR, POLITICO, Newsweek, and more. Her full biography is available: http://www.drugpolicy.org/melissa-moore.

Zara Snapp is the co-founder of Instituto RIA, a Mexican civil society organization that undertakes research and advocacy within a social justice, development, and peace building framework. For the past decade, she has engaged deeply in the legislative and judicial drug policy reform processes in Mexico, as well as participating in regional and international advocacy. From 2014-2017, she led the Latin American strategy for the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Zara has a master’s in public policy from Harvard University where she was a Public Service Fellow and a political science degree from the University of Colorado. Zara is the author of the book, Dictionary of Drugs and the host of Tiempo de Cannabis.

Toby has been designing and operating licensed facilities to cultivate Medical Cannabis in Europe over the past 7 years. He has previously worked to develop social justice programmes in countries such as Afghanistan, Jamaica and parts of Africa for International Development Agencies. With his MBA from London Business School, he is knowledgeable about the business models that are likely to succeed in the post-prohibition era and keen to assist Cannabis companies to operate profitably within their social and environmental responsibilities. 

Bernie Pauly RN, Ph.D, is a Scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance use Research and Professor of Nursing at the University of Victoria. She is a community-engaged scholar with a focus on harm reduction and housing interventions. She has received numerous awards for her work including the Canadian Public Association Ron Draper Award for Health Promotion, University of Victoria Community University Leadership Award and the Provost’s Engaged Scholar Award. She co-leads the Canadian Managed Alcohol Program Study and is an Associate Editor for the Alcohol Harm Reduction Section of the Harm Reduction Journal.

Tim Stockwell, PhD, FCAHS, MA (Oxon.), M.Sc., is a Scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria, Canada. He was a clinician and researcher in the UK before joining Australia's National Drug Research Institute as Director. Moving to Canada in 2004 he established the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research BC as a multidisciplinary research enterprise investigating the determinants of harmful substance use and also effective harm reduction strategies. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, recipient of the international 2013 E.M Jellinek Memorial Award for alcohol research, a recipient of the inaugural national award from Research Canada in 2014 for health research leadership and advocacy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Meaghan Brown, RN, Ph. D Candidate, is a settler nurse living on the unceded and traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples (Victoria, BC, Canada). She is a Doctoral Candidate in Nursing and Research Coordinator on the Canadian Managed Alcohol Program Study (CMAPS). Her doctoral research is focused on Indigenous informed and led Managed Alcohol Programs for which she received a doctoral fellowship in patient oriented research.  As a Registered Nurse, Meaghan has practiced in residential and outreach-based MAPs.

Sybil Goulet-Stock, MA Candidate, is a graduate student in Psychology at the University of Victoria and a research assistant at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. Her current research focuses are alcohol harm reduction approaches and the dissemination of evidence-based preventive interventions in young people using a mixed-methods approach.

Brittany Graham, MPH, has worked in drug policy, programming and research for over 15 years. Currently. she is the program Coordinator for the Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education (EIDGE) and for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). She also works as a research associate for the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR).

Myles Harps is a well known housing and drug policy advocate. He is a Steering Committee Member of EIDGE (Eastside Illicit Drinkers for Education and a Board Member, VANDU (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users).

Joana Canêdo is an activist for the rights of people who use drugs, working with women and non-binary people who use drugs at GAT Portugal (Activist Group in Action) and an expert in drug policy reform, harm reduction and public policies, working from intersectionality to achieve efficient public policies, specially focusing and engaging women experiencing multiple violence.

Joana is a member of the International Working Group of Youth Rise, as a youth activist and Young Person Who Uses Drugs and EuroNPUD (European Network of People Who Use Drugs) campaign coordinator. She is dedicated to foster peer-led initiatives such as self-managed spaces for People Who Use Drugs and working in cannabis legalization, and is interested in research oriented to community inclusion in the design and implementation of innovative programs. Joana has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and International Relations and Master in Economics and Public Policies.

MJ Stowe is a Researcher in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pretoria in the Community Orientated Substance Use Program (COSUP) and Programme Coordinator at the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs (SANPUD). MJ’s research interests include i) drug-related harms among PWUD; ii) drug checking in festival and community settings; iii) racial inclusivity in harm reduction and drug policy reform in South Africa; and vi) increasing community-based access to naloxone and opioid overdose education through take-home naloxone programmes. MJ’s work revolves around community-engagement and ensuring that PWUD are meaningfully involved in service delivery, advocacy and drug policy reform activities and efforts in South Africa.

Ruby is a youth activist involved in drug policy reform and harm reduction provision since 2017. Currently, she is living in Uganda, but is originally from Ireland. She joined Youth RISE in 2020 and is the current International Communications Officer, as well as working with a harm reduction organization on the ground in Kampala. With a background in academic International Development, and a focus on human rights and health, Ruby is passionate about ending the War on Drugs and its impact on countries in the Global South.

Emmy Kageha Igonya is an urban medical anthropologist researcher at the African Population and Health Research Center. She is working as an anthropologist on the ‘challenging politics of social exclusion’ project in sub-Saharan Africa in the Population Dynamics Reproductive and Sexual Health unit. She has conducted extensive research on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), primary on infant feeding, sexual and reproductive health, human rights, support groups, and key populations, including sexual and gender minorities, people who use drugs, and sex workers. She focuses on intersectionality, ethnography, implementation science, and participatory methods, including visual data. She has published on HIV, drug use, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and support
groups.

Florian is a Project Manager with Youth RISE and a Research Assistant and PhD Student at the School of Health Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. His PhD research focusses on “online sexualised drug use and performative pornography” and he is currently co-leading a study on training needs of early career doctors in addiction medicine as EURO Region Board Representative of the Network of Early Career in Addiction Medicine (NECPAM). He is a Guest Editor of the Harm Reduction Journal Special Series on “Young people, drugs and harm reduction”.

Drink and Drugs News (DDN) is the free magazine for everyone working with and interested in drugs, harm reduction and fair treatment. Printed each month and available online at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com.

Dr Prun Bijral is a consultant psychiatrist and medical director of Change Grow Live, a major health and social care charity in the UK. He has supported a number of national and international programmes over the years and as a consultant for the United Nations (UNODC) has been involved in the development of national clinical guidelines for Nigeria. He currently supports the Public Health England national Good Practice Programme for Opioid Substitution Therapy.

Peter Yarwood is the founder of Red Rose Recovery, a Lancashire based charity, and has been the driving force behind the emergence of the Lancashire User Forum as a dynamic stakeholder group for anyone interested or affected by addiction.

Session led by Poppi, with Utrecht University and Transform UK.

Mac is a social psychologist and holds a master in development studies. Since 2017 she works as the executive director at Mainline Foundation in the Netherlands and she is one of the founders of Poppi: Drugs Museum Amsterdam.

Rafa is a trained social and institutional psychologist with a Phd in development studies. She is a harm reduction and drug policy researcher with a 20 year track record in the field. Rafa works for Mainline Foundation and Correlation Network/the European Harm Reduction Network and is a guest researcher at Utrecht University.

Luca Mullers and Jago Steenhoff, are students from Computer Science and Information Science at Utrecht University (UU), the Netherlands. They represent the “Code Cartel”, a team of 10 UU students collaborating with researchers and Poppi to develop a serious game to support research and awareness into the possibility of regulated MDMA sale. 

Shaun Shelly is dedicated to understanding drug use, the rights of people who use drugs, and the development of effective drug policy. He brings academic, programmatic, research, clinical and lived experience together into a 360 degree-view of the complex issues that inform our understanding and response to the use of certain drugs and the people that use them.

Shaun is the Human Rights and Policy lead at TB/HIV Care, where he founded SA Drug Policy Week. He holds a post as a researcher at the University of Pretoria, Department of Family Medicine, and is the former Deputy Secretary of the United Nations VNGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs. He is a co-founder and chairperson of SANPUD, and sits on several boards and advisory groups, locally and internationally. 

Shaun was awarded the 2016 SASOP Special Achievement Award for advancing psychiatry based on his notable contribution in advocating for positive change in the field of addictions, addressing the stigma and difficult socioeconomic circumstances associated with addiction, as well as his contributions in lecturing and ongoing research. He was also a 2016 Open Society Foundations International Drug Policy Fellow and has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on subjects ranging from police culture to the neurobiology of dependent drug use. He has spoken as a plenary speaker at local and international conferences.

Dr. Nkereuwem William Ebiti is a Chief Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Supervisor, Addiction Treatment Services of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Barnawa, Kaduna and the President, Nigerian Society of Addiction Medicine and National Coordinator, Community Intervention Network on Drugs. He has served in administrative and leadership roles as the Director of Clinical services, Head of Training and Research in Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Barnawa, Kaduna, Executive Director, Milestones Center for Addiction Management, and Chairman of Planning and Logistics sub-committee of Kaduna State Drug Abuse Committee. He has also served as Technical Expert and consultant for West African Epidemiological Network on Drug Use (WENDU), Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug abuse, Senate Round Table on Problematic Drug Use in Northern Nigeria and Drug Expert Committee to Validate the Implementation Strategy of ECOWAS Regional Plan Against Drug Trafficking.

Dr Ebiti is a member of various expert committees in Nigeria related to the treatment of substance use including the harm reduction networks, curriculum review committees and UNODC/WHO Expert Group on Treatment of Drug Use Disorders in Patients Affected by Mental and Somatic Co-Morbidities.

He has published scientific papers and presented in many international and national conferences and served as Master Trainer for UNODC Treatnet II Addiction Program (Volume A, B, & C), Drug Prevention Treatment and Care (DPTC), Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) and Global Trainer, Drug Demand Reduction.

Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia University and former chair of the Department of Psychology, is one of the world’s preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart has published more than 100 scientific articles in the area of neuropsychopharmacology and is co-author of the textbook Drugs, Society and Human Behavior (with Charles Ksir). Dr. Hart is also an award-winning trade book author. His book, “High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society,” was the 2014 winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His most recent book is entitled, “Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear.” 
 
Prof. Hart has appeared on multiple podcasts, radio and television shows. His essays have been published in several popular publications including The New York Times, Scientific American, The Nation, Ebony, and O Globo (Brazil’s leading newspaper). In 2016, the city of Miami issued a proclamation declaring February 1, 2016 “Dr. Carl Hart Day.” 

Naomi is the Executive Director of Harm Reduction International. She brings more than 15 years of international experience at the intersection of law, harm reduction, HIV and human rights.

From 2014-2017, Naomi worked for the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program, leading a portfolio of funding and policy engagement that supported civil society to challenge the negative impact of drug policy on access to controlled medicines, and strengthen access to justice for people who use drugs.

Between 2009 and 2014, Naomi worked in a regional capacity for the HIV and Health Law Program at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO); posted in Jakarta, Kathmandu, then Kampala. In partnership with local organisations in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea, Naomi implemented programs advancing the rights of populations vulnerable to HIV via legal services and national human rights mechanisms. Naomi spent the first five years of her career practising law in Australia, in the private sector and as a pro bono legal adviser at community centres.

Naomi is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group to the UN on HIV and Drug Use, a member of the Global Fund Technical Review Panel for Human Rights and Gender, and a member of the World Health Organization Guidelines Group on 'Ensuring Balance in National Policies on Controlled Substances.' 

Daniel Wolfe is outgoing director of International Harm Reduction Development (IHRD) at the Open Society Foundations, and has worked in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Eastern Europe to support the health and human rights of people who use drugs. Over the past 20 years, OSF has awarded more than $120M in grants, and provided technical support and advocacy, to advance alternatives to abstinence-only approaches to drugs and reduce the harms of drug war approaches in health.  Wolfe is an expert on the intersection of health and drug policy, a member of the UN’s Strategic Advisory Group on HIV and drug use, and the author of book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed and popular publications including the International Journal of Drug Policy, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet, the Nation, and the New York Times Book Review.

Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, Wolfe was a community scholar at Columbia University’s Center for History and Ethics of Public Health, a recipient of the Revson Fellowship awarded to individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the city of New York, and the director of communications at GMHC, the largest and oldest AIDS NGO in the United States.

Ajeng Larasati is the Human Rights Lead at Harm Reduction International. Ajeng is a human rights and public health specialist with twelve years of experience in programme management, organisational development and strategic advocacy. She earned an LLM degree in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and from the University of Essex, UK in 2016, and an Bachelor of Law from the University of Indonesia in 2010.

From 2012 to 2020, Ajeng worked for Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat (LBHM), a leading legal aid organisation based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her work focused mainly on carrying out legal empowerment, capacity building, advocacy and research on the issue of HIV and human rights, drug policy, LGBT rights, and mental health. While at LBHM, Ajeng spearheaded the development of the Crisis Response Mechanism for LGBT communities and the development of the Indonesia HIV Legal Review, which highlights the human rights aspect of family-based intervention in Indonesia’s HIV program.

Prior to joining Harm Reduction International, Ajeng also worked as a consultant for the Community, Rights and Gender team of the Global Fund to fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where she provided technical assistance for key populations in Indonesia, to develop a multi-year human rights plan and support community participation in the development of funding applications to the Global Fund.

Judy Chang has been the Executive Director of INPUD since 2017. Judy has worked in the HIV and community-based health and development field for over ten years. She brings 20 years of lived experience as a woman who uses drugs and a client of harm reduction services to her role. Prior to 2015, her primary area of focus was on community health before moving to harm reduction and drug policy advocacy. During the course of her work, she has worked in various contexts, such as India, China and Thailand. Judy holds a Master’s in International Development and a Bachelor of Arts in Writing and Contemporary Cultures.

Niamh is Executive Director of Release. She started at Release in 2002 as a legal advisor. She has extensive experience of service delivery, policy strategy, fundraising and operational development. Having worked in drug policy for the last fifteen years Niamh is passionate about drug policy reform and believes that the most vulnerable in society are disproportionately impacted upon by the current drug laws.

Niamh has co-authored Release's recent policy papers 'The Colour of Injustice: 'Race', Drugs and Law Enforcement in England and Wales' and ‘A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe’. She has also co-authored and edited a number of Release's advice booklets including  ‘Drugs and the Law’ and ‘Sex Workers and the Law’, she regularly contributes to drug policy journals and publications. Niamh is also responsible for drafting many of Release's briefings for parliamentarians and policy makers. She has presented at international and national conferences and is regularly invited to comment in the media.

Niamh is an Associate of The London School of Economics IDEAS International Drug Policy Project, a member of the Expert Steering Group for the Global Drug Survey and is a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. She is also a committee member for DrugScience and has been a technical advisor to the Global Commission on Drug Policy. 

Charity Monareng is the Parliamentary and Policy Research Officer at TB HIV Care and is involved in high level advocacy work for drug policy reform nationally, regionally and internationally. She serves on the boards of the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs (SANPUD), Stand Action and Digital Girl Africa. She is also a PhD Candidate in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town. The focus of her research is on exploring South Africa’s governance and its modern identity though the story of the condemnation of drugs.

Sanho Tree is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies where he has directed its Drug Policy Project since 1998. The project works to end the domestic and international “War on Drugs” and replace it with policies that promote public health and safety in countries such as the Philippines, Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and the US. Mr. Tree is also a former military and diplomatic historian and he has collaborated in the past with Dr. Gar Alperovitz on The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth (Knopf, 1995). From 1996-97, he assisted entertainer Harry Belafonte and he was also associate editor of CovertAction Quarterly, a magazine of investigative journalism. In the late 1980s he worked at the International Human Rights Law Group.

Haven Wheelock has been advocating for the health and safety of people who use drugs since 2002. Currently she is the Drug Users Health Services Program Coordinator at Outside In in Portland Oregon. She provides direct services with people who use drugs and has also been involved in creating policy that improves the health in Oregon. She completed a MPH as a Fellow at Johns Hopkins as part of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative focusing on Overdose and Addiction Policy. She was also a Chief Petitioner for ballot measure 110, which was a first in the nation initiative to decriminalize drugs in the State of Oregon.

Giada is a Human Rights Analyst at Harm Reduction International. She monitors trends on violations of fundamental rights committed in the name of drug control and coordinates advocacy with partners around the world on relevant issues. 

Giada holds a law degree from the University of Torino (Italy), and an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from SOAS (University of London), and is a member of the Advocacy Coordination Working Group of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty.

Giada joined Harm Reduction International in April 2018. Prior to working at Harm Reduction International, she undertook research and policy analysis for the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International; worked in Guatemala with a local NGO promoting indigenous peoples' rights; and, worked at the SOAS Human Rights Clinic on access to justice. In mid-2017, Giada published a book on transitional justice titled Understanding Transitional Justice: A Struggle for Peace, Reconciliation, and Rebuilding. 

Since 2009, poet and scholar RED MEDUSA has lit up the poetry scene across the UK and the world with her infamous sharp tongue and unapologetic poetic demeanour. Her mainstream debut appearance was for the ‘Manorloz’ which was featured in Sky TVs’ Vox Africa channel for Black History Month 2010. Following the birth of her first child in 2012, she went on to share the stage with renowned poets such as Akala, Tolu Agbelusi, Anthony Anaxagorou, Kat François, Mike Galsworthy, Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson, Stacy-Ann Dyson and David Lee-Morgan to name a few. After five successful years of under- and postgraduate studies in public and global health, RED has continued to storm the world of spoken word, using her poetry to advocate for Black and Brown women and other disenfranchised peoples. In 2020, RED headlined a multitude of online events. Her #womeninlockdown haiku was chosen to feature for Liv Torks ‘Haiflu’ series, funded by the British Arts Council. RED then went international with her collaborative piece ‘Here to Stay’, created with award winning fashion designer Osman Yousefzada for London Fashion Week which went on to be published by Vogue, Forbes and Grazia magazines. In the summer of 2021, the ground-breaking piece was also published by the Wild Apothecary in their stunning, debut book ‘Wild Apothecary: Reclaiming Plant Medicine for All’.

Summer of 2021 saw RED featuring at the Southbank Centres ‘Summer Reunion’ where she joined the Noisettes’ former bass player and curator Shingai on her ‘South London Safari’ which celebrated super-talented alternative artists from South London. Following her epic set at the Southbank, RED has since collaborated with the Harm Reduction International to curate ‘Bright Stars, Dark Skies’, an online poetry event focused on social justice, freedom and pleasure. REDs passion for health and justice continues to be centred in her work as demonstrated by her recent partnership with the African and Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT), SickleKan, Unsickle My Cells and NHS Blood & Transplant. Her commissioned piece ‘Bonded by Blood’ was part of a national and online campaign encouraging 40,000 people from Black and Brown communities to donate blood in the forthcoming blood drive titled ‘Bonded by Blood; A Mothers Story’. When RED is not performing poetry, she delivers poetry workshops and talks at events, secondary schools and universities across London. Her latest conversation with Harvard professor and physician Eugene Richardson at Queen Mary, University of London was a huge success and focused on decolonising public health. RED has already been booked for shows into 2022 and will also be launching a ground-breaking monthly podcast focused on her love of Black authored literature and writers.

www.poetrybyredmedusa.co.uk

David Lee Morgan has travelled the world with his saxophone as a performance poet and musician. He has won the London, UK, and BBC Slam Poetry
Championships, as well as a fair number of club slams in the UK and the US, including Soul City Arts and the Nuyorican. He has featured at poetry festivals and
events all over the UK, Ireland and the U.S. including StAnza (St. Andrews, Scotland), Lingo (Dublin, Ireland), the Seattle Folk Arts Festival, and the Isle of Wight
Festival, where he opened for Fleetwood Mac (sadly, not on the same stage). His spoken word show, Science, Love and Revolution, received rave reviews at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was featured at StAnza, the international poetry festival in St. Andrews, Scotland. His show, Nazis Need Jews, won Best Spoken
Word Show at the Morecambe Fringe.

He is a longstanding member of the Writers Guild of Great Britain (has served on the Executive Council) and holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. He lives in London, grew up in the USA, was born in Berlin, and considers himself a citizen of the planet. He has been published in various poetry  magazines and anthologies, including The Wooster Review, The Delinquent, The Human Rights Anthology, Huffington Post, Prowl, Gronthee, Schnews and Indigo.

www.davidword.com

Award winning Ms British Beauty Curve 2019, Al-Khemi is a formidable rising star in the UKs spoken word and poetry scene. Following her triumphant success as a plus size model and having battled with negative beliefs about her body image, she has set out to break down barriers for others that have encountered similar struggles. She has since utilised her talent with the medium of poetry to convey messages of body positivity and in turn, has inspired many others to see the beauty in themselves. Al-Khemi prides herself in being a voice for the disenfranchised and the insecure. Her poetry is experimental; she often plays with different writing techniques to create stories and scenes that take the reader to somewhere new and unexpected. She is a fearless explorer of taboo subjects and enjoys confronting difficult social conversations head-on.

 Al-Khemis work speaks to the intersectionality of her identity as a Black woman, covering themes such as race, gender, social justice and domestic violence. She has recently featured at prominent London-based spoken word events including Mind over Matter at the Brixton Ritzy; an event that explors mental health through poetic expression, as well as the infamous FloVortex; an event curated by Grammy Nominated Natalie ‘The Floacist’ Stewart. Here, Al-Khemy raised the roof with her stunning poem ‘From the untrained eye’; an epic journey into Al-Khemis experiences of the world and her triumph over the challenges she has encountered and overcome. 2022 promises to be a ground-breaking year for her, with features and projects that will shake up and wake up the foundations of London’s spoken word scene for many moons to come!

www.facebook.com/Jodi.CurveQueen

British/Ghanaian Writer and Spoken Word artist Miss Yankey has captivated audiences from London to Paris, to New York, and as far as Melbourne. Her energy is unmistakable, every word she spills is carefully crafted, performed with passion, and loaded with authenticity. As a part of the international collective ‘FLO Poets’ Miss Yankey is mentored by x7 times Grammy award nominated Natalie ‘The Floacist’ Stewart, and hosts at two of London’s most popular Spoken Word shows, The Chocolate Poetry Club and Mind Over Matter. 

Miss Yankey’s words can be found fused with music on tracks including Black King which opens UK Rapper Logic’s recent release ‘I Am King’; ‘Feelings’ and 'Gila Monster' produced by Robbie Maddix, founder of Music House and formerly of the Stone Roses; and ‘One Less’, recently released on Local Talk Records. Having spent much of lock down in the studio, you can expect to see this gifted lyricist’s vocals appearing on a steady line of collaborations over the course of 2021 and beyond. 

Miss Yankey released her debut EP ‘Shadow Work in the Waters’ on December 22nd 2020.

www.missyankey.co.uk

Kat François is a performance artist, educator, broadcaster, play-write and director. The first person to win a televised poetry slam in the UK, a year later she won the World Slam Championships. As a playwright, Kat has written and performed two internationally staged solo plays, and two comedy shows. Raising Lazarus, Kat’s play dealing with the experiences of Caribbean soldiers in World War One, continues to tour globally to critical acclaim, and formed part of the WW1 centenary and featured at Imperial War Museum.

Kat has worked with young people for many years, as a youth worker, PHSE Facilitator, also teaching dance, drama, poetry and performance skills. She is an established playwright and director of youth theatre, devising and directing plays for theatres including Theatre Royal Stratford East, Roundhouse Camden, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith.

Kat has appeared on BBC Breakfast TV, Blue Peter, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Saturday Live, Woman’s Hour, Radio 5 Live and Sky TV. Kat also run’s Onyx, a poetry and theatre performance group with young people, and produced and directed the acclaimed piece, Women Must, at Last Word Festival, Roundhouse. The group have continued to meet online weekly during lockdown and are currently conducting research on issues around mental health for their next piece of creative work.

www.katfrancois.com

Born and bred in South-East London of Anglo-Jamaican heritage, Mark originally trained as an actor following which he appeared on stage and screen, including touring nationally in a play written by Benjamin Zephaniah. Having found acting work a little less than consistent (ahem... ok a lot less than consistent!), he retrained as secondary drama teacher, looking to bring his youth work and dramatic skills together in a way that would actually allow him to make a regular wage between other engagements. 

Working as a Drama lecturer in FE, a theatre company’s director of education and then as a teacher of children with speech and language difficulties, he eventually decided to go back to the world of performance, this time focusing on his poetry. His love of verse can be traced to a diverse range of inspirations; his passion for rap music and sung lyrics, an early introduction to Shakespeare and a love of dub poets like Zephaniah. His first verses were written in song or rap form, but he didn’t discover the most effective way to use them until he stumbled into a spoken word event in Brixton in 2003. It was a eureka moment. Hold on I don’t need music, I can just get up and SAY my stuff!’ Twelve months later he won his first slam. 

Late in 2010 he won the People's Choice award for most popular artist on www.manologz.co.uk in their televised on-line slam. His work is intensely personal exploring themes including; culture and identity, love and romance, as well as political and social commentary. A whole chapter of his first collection, ‘Mixed Messages’ self-published in 2009, is dedicated to the story of his wife Sarah’s successful search for a bone marrow donor. Mark has volunteered with the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust ever since, regularly representing the organisation at various awareness and fundraising events as the ACLT’s official poet. He has already sold over 400 copies of his first book, 200 copies of the CD, performed at venues from the Hackney Empire to The Blues Room in Johannesburg, in the process winning a number of awards and Slam competitions. Additionally, he has delivered educational, poetry-based workshops to young people in schools and colleges receiving rave reviews.

www.theccpress.co.uk

Drug Science is the leading independent scientific body on drugs in the UK, working to provide clear, evidence-based information without political or commercial interference.

Dr Anne Katrin Schlag is a Chartered Psychologist and Head of Research at Drug Science. She completed her PhD in Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, before working as Lecturer at King’s College London where she developed her expertise across the spectrum of science and policy making, risk perception, risk management and risk communication. She holds Honorary Fellowships at both Imperial College London and King’s College London.

Within her role at Drug Science, she leads the research for the Medical Cannabis Working Group, focusing on controversies surrounding medical cannabis, the improvement of patient access, and the continued development of education and stakeholder communication about medical cannabis. Dr Schlag is currently working on progressing the scientific evidence base of medical cannabis to include Patient-Reported Outcomes, observational studies (such as T21) and the application of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess the benefits and safety of medical cannabis.

Prof. Michael Lynskey is an epidemiologist and addiction researcher who has held academic appointments in New Zealand, where he’s from, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. His research largely focuses on the onset and escalation of drug use during adolescence and he has worked on multiple longitudinal studies examining the assessment of drug related problems and their associations with mental health. Given rapid changes occurring in the regulation of cannabis use and supply, he is increasingly interested in studying policy approaches to cannabis.

David Badcock is the Chief Executive Officer of Drug Science, the leading independent scientific body on drugs in the UK, working to provide clear, evidence-based information without political or commercial interference. Previously David held strategic positions in the substance misuse treatment sector for over 15 years. During this time, he has met and worked with thousands of individuals who have turned their lives around to lead healthy, successful lives free from the burden of drug addiction. He was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Mainliners, a national drug treatment organisation focusing on harm reduction and blood borne viruses.  David has been a committee member for the Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, Chair of The Alliance (supporting people who receive prescribed medication for drug dependency), and Scientific Committee member for the influential London Joint Working Group for Substance Misuse and Hepatitis C. David specialises in creating unique partnerships with organisations and companies who share a joint vision to help the most marginalised and vulnerable members of our communities.

Drink and Drugs News (DDN) is the free magazine for everyone working with and interested in drugs, harm reduction and fair treatment. Printed each month and available online at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com.

The Hepatitis C Trust is the national UK charity for hepatitis C and has been operating since 2001. It is a patient-led and patient-run organisation whose overarching goal is to shut down because they are no longer needed – in other words because hepatitis C has been eliminated in the UK. 

Paul Huggett is the Peer Coordinator for the Hep C Trust in Leicestershire. After 20 years of IV drug use and successful treatment for hepatitis C, Paul became a peer for the Hep C Trust, sharing his experience and educating and testing others and eventually became a drug worker, qualifying as a lead health worker specializing in addiction and substance misuse.

In his role at the Hep C Trust, Paul leads a team of four peer leads and eight volunteers who are tasked with engaging, testing, treating and supporting others through hepatitis C treatment, successfully treating over 1,100 patients to date.

The Hepatitis C Trust Regional Manager, Independent consultant: facilitator, trainer and part time farmer.

Nathan Motherwell is the Hep C Trust's Peer Coordinator in Kent, whose outreach work supports homeless PWID to gain access to hepatitis C testing and treatment, including NSP and naloxone distribution.

Dr. Andrea Sereda is a family physician working at the London Intercommunity Health Centre, where she focuses her practice on people who use drugs, people living in homelessness, and women involved in the survival sex trade. Dr. Sereda provides care in a traditional office setting, but also through street outreach medicine; going to where people are at in shelters, encampments or anything in between. She is an avid harm reductionist, and is the lead physician for the LIHC Safe Opioid Supply program, which is currently the longest running SOS program in Canada.

Nazlee Maghsoudi is the Manager of the Policy Impact Unit at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. She has been deeply involved in the development of evidence-based drug policies at the grassroots, local, national, and international levels since 2013. Nazlee is Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the New York NGO Committee on Drugs, a global committee that supports civil society engagement on drug policy at the United Nations and represents 100+ organizations. She is also a Strategic Advisor at Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, having formerly acted as Chair of the Board of Directors. Nazlee is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University and a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto.

Maia Szalavitz is the author, most recently, of Undoing Drugs:  The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction, which is the first book on the history of harm reduction 
Her previous book, Unbroken Brain:  A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, was a New York Times bestseller and received the media award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

An earlier book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, was the first to expose the damage caused by the “tough love” business that dominates youth treatment and helped spur Congressional hearings on the matter. 

She has also authored or co-authored five other books, including the classic on child trauma, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, with Bruce. D. Perry, MD, PhD. In addition, she has written essays and features for numerous publications from High Times to the New York Times. 

Sheila P. Vakharia, PhD is Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement for the Drug Policy Alliance. In that role, she helps DPA staff and others understand a range of drug policy issues while also responding to new studies with critiques and analysis. She plans conferences and convenings on cutting edge issues in the area of drugs, drug research, and harm reduction. Additionally, she is responsible for cultivating relationships with researchers from a wide range of disciplines aligned with DPA’s policy interests and working to mobilize academics in service of DPA policy campaigns. Prior to joining DPA, Dr. Vakharia was an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Long Island University, and had also worked as a clinical social worker in both abstinence-only and harm reduction settings. 

Ronnie is a member of the Scottish National Party and Member of Parliament for Inverclyde, having first been elected in 2015. 
 
Ronnie is from Greenock and after leaving school he got a job as a trainee computer operator at Playtex in Port Glasgow, and went on to build a career in IT, latterly running his own company which focussed on finding IT solutions to business problems.
 
Ronnie is Vice-chair of the All-party parliamentary groups (APPG) on Gambling Related Harm; Drug Policy Reform; Medical cannabis under prescription and is the Treasurer of the APPG on Commercial Sexual Exploitation.  He is also Vice-chair of the Cross-Party Parliamentary and Local Government Working Group on Universal Basic Income.
 
Political Interests: drug policy reform, employment, gambling related harm, prostitution laws, renewables, social security and universal basic income.
 

Christine has been the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh West since 2017 and is the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson for the party.

Before entering politics, Christine was a journalist and broadcaster who had written for the Scotsman, worked for the BBC and was editor of the Press Association in Scotland. Christine taught journalism at University of Strathclyde, University of the West of Scotland and Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, having run the postgraduate practical journalism course at the Scottish Centre for Journalism Studies.
 

A former UK Government health minister and current Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, Dr Poulter has extensive knowledge of both the U.K. and international healthcare policy arenas including drugs and regulatory matters. He is a regular writer and media commentator on healthcare and drugs policy issues.

Dr Poulter studied law at Bristol University followed by medicine at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine (now Kings College London). Before entering politics, he worked as an NHS hospital doctor and continues to work as a NHS psychiatrist on a part-time basis.
 

Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the Labour MP for Streatham and has represented the constituency in which she was raised since Dec 2019.
 
Born in 1985, Ribeiro-Addy grew up in South London, and was educated at Bradford University and Queen Mary’s University.  She is a former Black Students Officer and convenor on anti-racism for the National Union of Students.
 
Before being elected to Parliament, she served as Chief of Staff to the former Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott MP.
 
She is the Co-Chair of Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, Chair of APPG of Afrikan Reparations and of the APPG on Black Maternal Health.
She is also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on the British Overseas Territories, Children Who Need Palliative Care, Domestic Violence, Immigration Detention, Knife Crime, and Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia.
 

Alex Stevens is Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of Kent and a board member of Harm Reduction International. He is a former member of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He researches and teaches on the overlap between drugs, crime and public health, including alternatives to criminalisation of people who use drugs.

Nigel is a photographer and harm reduction advocate. His subjects are the workers, advocates, people who use drugs and academics he has met around the world. Sometimes it’s people met once at a conference, often it’s people who he photographs repeatedly over the years, building friendships and trusts that reflect in his photographs.

His work has been used by some of the main harm reduction organisations around the world as well as appearing in articles and media regularly.

Sandra Calligaro (1981 -) is a French freelance photographer. She has been working between France and Afghanistan since 2007. 

Sandra started working as a photographer in Afghanistan in 2007. At 25, after studying art, she went to Kabul to revive a teenage dream: to become a war correspondent. Initially intending to spend a month in Kabul, she stayed for nearly ten years. From this great adventure, Sandra brought back very few photographs of the war itself, preferring instead to focus on the people whose lives were weakened by the conflict, whose lucid gaze was always filled with modesty and tenderness. Sandra found herself deeply touched by the country and the daily life of its inhabitants. 

In Kabul, Sandra particularly focused on the emergence of a new urban class with her project "Afghan Dream", which presents the daily life of these young Kabulis in an ordinary way. The project was award-winning, and a book was published in 2016. In part because she became a professional photographer in Afghanistan, Sandra remains very attached to this country and to its history. While her various reports have taken her to several parts of the world, Afghanistan remains Sandra's main area of work and the heart of her engagement. 

In addition to press work and her more personal documentary work, Sandra regularly collaborates with NGOs on multimedia projects and exhibitions. For several years, she has also worked as a chief operator for television (Arte, France TV) and cinema. In particular, she collaborated on the shooting of Yann Arthus-Bertrand's latest film, "Woman".

www.sandracalligaro.com

Craig Harvey has worked in the harm reduction field, following his numerous, spectacular academic failures, since the late 1990’s Working primarily with people who inject drugs to develop simple, pragmatic programs which aim to promote health and wellbeing. Craig started his career at Birmingham’s Drugline service, where he worked exclusively with street based projects, developing easy to access harm reduction programs for those denied access to mainstream services.

Since emigrating to Australia in 2006, he has held a variety of positions, including overdose response, supported housing and developing better access to opioid pharmacotherapy programs.

The focus of Craig’s work over the last 10 years has been the development of better needle syringe programs and take home naloxone programs, work which he still continues today. 

Graham MacIndoe is an associate professor of photography at Parsons School of Design in New York City and has worked as a photographer for more than 20 years. His documentary and portrait photography focuses on a range of social justice issues, including drug policy, harm reduction, addiction, and criminal justice reform.

After a long period of addiction that led to his own incarceration, Graham was invited to exhibit a series of self-portraits he took during that time at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Accompanied by text and multimedia describing his trajectory from drug use to addiction to recovery, the Guardian called the show one of the five “best UK exhibitions” to see when it opened. Graham has volunteered at VOCAL-NY, a harm reduction and advocacy organization, where he co-taught an art and writing class that created a zine of photographs, artworks, and text by members.

For the past year, Graham and his wife Susan Stellin have been working with the Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies documenting the work of the partners they support in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Michigan. Through photographs and quotes from interviews with staff, volunteers, and participants, this collaborative series aims to broaden support for initiatives to reduce overdose deaths, promote the health of marginalized communities, and change how people view groups that have been stigmatized. Much of that work can be seen at www.lovedignity.org and is on view as part of the 2021 Photoville Festival in New York City. Graham and Susan also co-curated the exhibition Beyond Addiction: Reframing Recovery (www.reframingrecovery.org), which debuted in New York City in 2019 and traveled to Rochester NY in 2020. 

Graham has spoken at many events about photography and depictions of addiction and drug use, including talks at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, TEDx Stanford, Aperture, The New School, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University. He has been interviewed by a wide range of print, television, and radio outlets, and his photographs have been published and written about in many newspapers and magazines.

www.grahammacindoe.com

Violet Maodi is the Gauteng Regional Representative at the South African Network of People who Use Drugs, with a focus on women who use drugs. Violet actively engages with women who use drugs from communities around Tshwane, as well as families of people who use drugs.

Violet's aim is to ensure that women who use drugs, who are severely stigmatized and marginalised, have their voices heard and that issues specific to this group are incorporated into advocacy activities.

Violet has experience as a counsellor and uses these skills to work with people who use drugs and support them with various issues, including the reporting of human rights violations.

Prof Jim McVeigh holds the post of Professor in Substance Use and Associated Behaviours in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has worked within health/public health for over 30 years initially as a Registered General Nurse working with people who inject drugs, before moving into academia.  He has published extensively anabolic androgenic steroids and associated drugs and presented at many influential international conferences. Jim collaborates with some of the leading international experts in the field and has recently co-edited the Routledge book Human Enhancement Drugs. In 2020, he founded the Anabolic Steroid United Kingdom Network and led the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research ‘Image and Performance Enhancing Drug Use in the United Kingdom’.

Dr Katinka van de Ven is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Rural Criminology, University of New England and a Visiting Fellow as part of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), UNSW. Katinka specializes in the use and supply of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), which includes projects surrounding anabolic-androgenic steroids and drugs policy, harm minimization, and improving health services for people who use enhancement drugs. She also conducts research in relation to alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services systems more broadly, amongst others around funding mechanisms, workforce characteristics, client outcomes and rurality. Katinka is the Founder and Director of the Human Enhancement Drugs Network (HEDN), is the Editor-in-Chief of Performance Enhancement & Health, has co-edited the Routledge published book Human Enhancement Drugs, and (co-)authored a numbers of peer-reviewed papers within the enhancement field.

Dr Jennifer Germain holds a Ph.D. from the Public Health Institute (PHI), Liverpool John Moores University. Her PhD focused on the use of unlicensed weight loss drugs, specifically 2,4 dinitrophenol (DNP), sibutramine and rimonabant in women. In carrying out this research she also developed an interest in online research methodologies. Jennifer is currently working as a Project Lead at PHI and her broader research interests are around eating behaviour, weight management and obesity.

Dr Dimitrios Liokaftos is a sociologist investigating human enhancement and substance use. His current research fellowship funded by the Wellcome Trust looks at microdosing psychedelics as a new form of human enhancement (Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University). This work builds on his previous research on the evolution of bodybuilding culture and the use of image and performance-enhancing drugs (A Genealogy of Male Bodybuilding: From Classical to Freaky).

Alexandra Aldridge is a PhD student researching sex, drugs, and sexual consent. Her thesis focuses on issues of capacity, vulnerability, and sexual boundaries, and works towards a sexual ethics that is inclusive of sex on drugs. Alexandra is also Sex and Drugs lead for the Global Drug survey.

Drink and Drugs News (DDN) is the free magazine for everyone working with and interested in drugs, harm reduction and fair treatment. Printed each month and available online at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com.

Annemarie is a person in recovery and chief executive of Favor UK, a UK-wide based charity led by people with living and lived experience of alcohol and other drugs, and representing the voices of communities affected by addiction. In addition to organising the UK Recovery Walk the charity’s ‘You keep talking, we keep dying’ campaign advocates for more action to tackle drug related deaths while lobbying for a Right to Recovery Bill in the Scottish Parliament which would enshrine a right to treatment in law.

Vicki is CEO of Project 6 an award winning voluntary sector drug and alcohol charity working across Yorkshire. Describing itself as a harm reduction and recovery focused service, Project 6 works to help people reduce the risks associated with substance use and offers evidence-based support to drug and alcohol users and their families.

Stuart is manager of Aspire drug and alcohol service in Doncaster (partnership with NHS and ADS). He is also a key member of the College of Lived Experience Organisations (CLERO) and part of the strategic group alongside CV, APA, Adfam and ES.

SEEDS (Sowing Empowering and Engaging Discussions on Substances) 

Anuska Rajen is a 4th year medical student at Barts and The London. She grew interested in the topic of drug policy when reading 'When I wear my alligator boots' by Shaylih Muehlmann whilst doing her Global Public Health iBSc.  What she learned compelled her to join the team creating SEEDS in order to encourage conversations about current drug policy, including the history of colonialism and how it affects drug policy, reducing stigma, and encouraging safe drug use.

Director of Ayahku, Dr. G, Campaign manager, #Kajibukankeji.

Chairperson Sensible Philippines, Vice President and 3rd Nominee for the Medical Cannabis Party Philippines.

CEO, Elevated Estate and Independent Cannabis Legalization Advocate.

Ethan Nadelmann is the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York City-based non-profit organization working to end the War on Drugs. Described by Rolling Stone as, "The driving force for the legalization of marijuana in America," Ethan Nadelmann is known as a high-profile critic and commentator on U.S. and international drug control policies. Most recently, Ethan has launched a podcast, Psychoactive, which tries to get to the bottom of our strange relationship with drugs, by talking to those who love them, hate them, and study them.

Colleen is the Deputy Director and Public Health Lead at Harm Reduction International. She has 23 years’ experience as a Director, Project Manager, and Technical Advisor in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, gender, human rights, challenging operating environments, and community systems strengthening, working to deliver access to essential health services. She has worked in programs globally and has lived and worked in Australia, Kenya, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, the Kingdom of Tonga and the USA. 

Ayodeji Ayoola is a cinematographer based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Since leaving the University of Ibadan, where he studied for a degree in Biochemistry, Ayodeji took a deep dive into the creative industry, learning and mastering a number of creative disciplines on his journey, starting out as a graphic designer and photographer and now working in the world of stills, film and television, as a Director and Director of Photography. In this time, Ayodeji has worked on a number of ads, commercials and documentaries for companies including Fanmilk, SafeBoda, Darling and SheleadsAfrica.

In his spare time, Ayodeji loves to travel, play FIFA and watch movies.

Dr Giulia Zampini is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Greenwich. Before coming to academia, she did some voluntary work in harm reduction services and drug policy advocacy, and through this work became interested in drug policy reform, later undertaking a PhD. Her research interests centre around evidence and policy, drugs, morality, harm reduction, decriminalisation, and prison education. She is currently leading a project titled ‘People and Dancefloors: narratives of drug-taking’, which takes a participatory action research approach through the use of film and other media to create space for a diversity of voices in the drug policy debate, including people who use drugs. For more information about the project, visit www.peopleanddancefloors.com. 

You can watch Giulia’s TED talk to find out more about her ideas, or follow her on Twitter @GFZampini @PDancefloors

Mitchell Gomez is a graduate of New College of Florida (whose Alumni included the founders of Erowid, MAPS and the Zendo Project), and has his Masters from CU Denver. Mitchell joined Dancesafe as their National Outreach Director in 2014, and he was promoted to Executive Director in March of 2017. He has volunteered with the Burning Man organization, SSDP and other small harm reduction projects for many years, and is a passionate advocate for reality-based drug policy and harm reduction. DanceSafe.org.

María Alejandra Medina is a professional in government and international relations. She holds a master's degree in social responsibility and sustainability from the Universidad Externado de Colombia. She has a diploma in "Drug Policy, Health and Human Rights" from the CIDE in Mexico. For the last four years she has worked in programs and research that focus on harm reduction in legal and illegal drugs in “Échele cabeza cuando se dé en la cabeza” project and the non-governmental organization "Corporación Acción Técnica Social (ATS)". In this organization, she has provided information services and analysis of psychoactive substances in nightlife and festival contexts. Since 2018 she has been involved in nicotine harm reduction projects from public policy advocacy, public health, human rights, and participation right, to create in 2020 the platform "Nicotine: harm reduction" as a project of ATS in which she acts as technical and regional coordinator.

Suchitra Rajagopalan is the Communications Officer at Harm Reduction International (HRI) and is deeply involved in the development of HRI’s work to promote racial justice and decolonise drug policy. Suchitra has been key in shaping communications on the impact of punitive drug policies and in connecting HRI’s call for the redirection of funding to broader social justice movements.

Prior to joining HRI, Suchitra served as the Research Coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), and also interned with DPA’s international policy department. She previously worked at the HIV/AIDS Unit of Lawyers Collective in Mumbai, India.

Suchitra received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Law from Sciences Po Paris and has studied law at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Mumbai.

Suchitra writes on harm reduction, drug policy and human rights and has been published by CNN, Huffpost, Talking Drugs, and the Inquirer.

Prof Jim McVeigh holds the post of Professor in Substance Use and Associated Behaviours in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has worked within health/public health for over 30 years initially as a Registered General Nurse working with people who inject drugs, before moving into academia.  He has published extensively anabolic androgenic steroids and associated drugs and presented at many influential international conferences. Jim collaborates with some of the leading international experts in the field and has recently co-edited the Routledge book Human Enhancement Drugs. In 2020, he founded the Anabolic Steroid United Kingdom Network and led the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded research ‘Image and Performance Enhancing Drug Use in the United Kingdom’.

Dr Katinka van de Ven is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Rural Criminology, University of New England and a Visiting Fellow as part of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), UNSW. Katinka specializes in the use and supply of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), which includes projects surrounding anabolic-androgenic steroids and drugs policy, harm minimization, and improving health services for people who use enhancement drugs. She also conducts research in relation to alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services systems more broadly, amongst others around funding mechanisms, workforce characteristics, client outcomes and rurality. Katinka is the Founder and Director of the Human Enhancement Drugs Network (HEDN), is the Editor-in-Chief of Performance Enhancement & Health, has co-edited the Routledge published book Human Enhancement Drugs, and (co-)authored a numbers of peer-reviewed papers within the enhancement field.

Dr Geoff Bates is a Research Associate at the University of Bath’s Institute for Policy Research. His research interests are in understanding health and social behaviours and influencing behaviour through interventions and policy. His work considers the use of evidence to understand behaviour, inform decision-making and the development of interventions. Geoff previously worked at the National Institute of Health and Social Care Excellence (NICE) developing public health guidance, and at Liverpool John Moores University as a public health researcher and lecturer. His research on IPEDs has focussed on understanding and informing interventions relating to prevention, harm reduction and treatment; and his PhD used intervention and implementation science to critique and inform the public health response to AAS use in the UK. He has worked on several waves of the UK national IPEDs survey, evaluations of services targeting IPED users and contributed to NICE guidance for delivering Needle and Syringe Programmes. Beyond IPEDs, his current research focuses on influencing decision-making in policymakers in national and local government, with an emphasis on improving and protecting health in urban environments through evidence-informed approaches.

Dr Ingrid Amalia Havnes, MD, PhD, is a specialist in psychiatry and researcher at Oslo University hospital, Division of Mental Health and Addiction and is a member of the Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid (AAS) Research Group. She has worked 20 years in mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment including providing treatment for men who struggle to quit their AAS use. Havnes is engaged in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research focusing on health risks and treatment among users of anabolic-androgenic steroids. She has published papers exploring AAS use among women, patients in SUD treatment and prisoners. She is currently leading a research project exploring a) whether health risks are reduced among men who cease AAS use, and b) if off-label use of clomiphene citrate will reduce withdrawal symptoms upon cessation. Havnes’ previous research projects focused on crime and substance use, diversion of methadone/buprenorphine, methadone-related overdose, user involvement and evaluation of treatment programs for patients with cooccurring mental health and SUDs.

Dr Mair Underwood is an anthropologist and lecturer at the University of Queensland. She specializes in human bodies and particularly their modification. Her current interest is in bodybuilding and the use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs). She has been working in online bodybuilding communities for the last 5 years, and is proud to be a spokesperson for these communities. Her aim is to redress the neglect of the bodybuilder perspective in academic debates about their lives, and to act as a bridge between bodybuilders and the professionals seek to study and support them. Her research has explored the experience of IPEDs, their place in bodybuilding communities, and the harm reduction practices used in enhanced bodybuilding communities. Her IPED research has led to interests in related areas such as masculinity, the display of the body, and muscle dysmorphia.

Dave Crosland has been involved in the world of steroids for 31 years, initially as a user. He pushed his body size and usage to the extremes and has since concentrated his energies on harm reduction and education within the user communities. He runs Croslands Harm Reduction Services and Eval, a blood testing company specialising in dealing with IPED users. He presents two podcasts: drugs n stuff on the Think Big Bodybuilding Media and Performance Enhancing Discussions with Broderick Chavez on Evil Genius Network. He works as a steroid expert witness and delivers steroid training to several police forces. He is heavily involved within the user communities and has unique insight into user trends and user perceptions, interacting with literally hundreds of users on a weekly basis.

Dr Angus Bancroft is a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently researching digital platforms in informal economies, digital methods for harm reduction, cyber-security, illicit markets and views of darknet users.

Eliza Kurcevič is a Senior Progamme Officer at the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA). She has an extensive knowledge in drug policy, human rights, community mobilization and capacity building areas in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Currently Eliza is working on issues related to new psychoactive substances, advocacy for the innovative harm reduction services, peer involvement into the harm reduction programmes and young people who use drugs.

Aleksey Lakhov has been working in different Russian NGOs in the field of HIV infection, viral hepatitis and substance abuse prevention. Lately, Aleksey has been the Development Director of the largest Russian harm reduction organization "Humanitarian Action" (Saint Petersburg), as well as General Manager of the Harm Reduction NGOs Coalition "Outreach" (Tallinn, Estonia).

Aleksey has participated in several research papers for peer-reviewed journals on new psychoactive substances and online harm reduction and has authored a web outreach manual for the UNODC Programme Office in Eastern Europe. Aleksey is deputy section editor on NPS and the Internet in the Harm Reduction Journal.

Florian is a Project Manager with Youth RISE and a Research Assistant and PhD Student at the School of Health Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. His PhD research focusses on “online sexualised drug use and performative pornography” and he is currently co-leading a study on training needs of early career doctors in addiction medicine as EURO Region Board Representative of the Network of Early Career in Addiction Medicine (NECPAM). He is a Guest Editor of the Harm Reduction Journal Special Series on “Young people, drugs and harm reduction”.

Dr. Pavel Bem (Prague, 18 July 1963) is a Czech politician, former Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and former Mayor of the City of Prague. In 1998, he was elected as a Mayor of Prague 6 District followed by two terms of Office as Lord Mayor of the City of Prague. He is currently also a Member of the National Drug Commission – Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in Cabinet of Prime Minister and advisor to the Prime Minister on drug issues. 

Pavel Bém studied medicine at Charles University in Prague, specializing in psychiatry and subsequently devoting most of his career to drug abuse prevention, treatment and drug policy. He is one of founders of the Czech drug policy and a pioneer in developing the public health-oriented drug policy in former Czechoslovakia as well as in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. Mr. Bem served many years as a Czech “Drug Tzar” – National Drug Coordinator. He spent 20 years in various policy roles and high management functions at international, national as well as local levels focusing mainly at developing of cost effective public health strategies and harm reduction services. He has served for various governmental as well as international bodies (EU, UN, WHO, Council of Europe, Group Pompidou, PHARE).

He was twice elected as a Vice-president of the Committee of the Regions of the European Parliament. As a Member of the Czech Parliament he has successfully submitted and introduced the law on the Medical Cannabis.

Since 2012 he is a Commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, self-constituted body of former presidents, head of states and politicians aiming at ending the war on drugs and introducing human drug policy reform throughout the world. 

Currently, he serves also as a trainer, clinician and teacher at the 1st Medical Faculty of the Charles University, head of the Department for Psychotherapy and Family Therapy at the Addictology Clinic. He works as a supervisor certificated by the EAS (European Association for Supervision).

His other interests include mountaineering, extreme skiing, scuba diving and piano playing. He has climbed 4 eight-thousanders, including Mt. Everest and K2. 

David Pešek is manager of HR facilitiy SANANIM, psychologist and jungian psychotherapist. SANANIM NGO is one of the main providers of drug services in Czech Republic. He is working 18 years in the field of addictions. Has emphasis on harm reduction, humane drug policies, destigmatization, trauma and attachment disorder among PWUD etc. 

David Nutt is Chair of Drug Science's Scientific Committee and currently the Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and Head of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Centre for Academic Psychiatry in the Division of Brain Sciences, Dept of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. He is also visiting professor at the Open University in the UK and Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

He currently is the founder Chair of DrugScience and has held many leadership positions in both the UK and European academic scientific and clinical organisations. These include presidencies of the European Brain Council, the British Neuroscience Association, the British Association of Psychopharmacology and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology as well as Chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, of Psychiatrists and of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is also the UK Director of the European Certificate and Masters in Affective Disorders courses and a member of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy.

David has edited the Journal of Psychopharmacology for over twenty five years and acts as the psychiatry drugs advisor to the British National Formulary. He has published over 500 original research papers and a similar number of reviews and books chapters, eight government reports on drugs and 31 books, including one for the general public, ‘Drugs Without the Hot Air’, which won the Transmission book prize in 2014 for Communication of Ideas.

Drug Science is the leading independent scientific body on drugs in the UK, working to provide clear, evidence-based information without political or commercial interference.

Harm Reduction International is a leading NGO dedicated to reducing the negative health, social and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy. We promote the rights of people who use drugs and their communities through research and advocacy to help achieve a world where drug policies and laws contribute to healthier, safer societies.

This year, Harm Reduction International turns 25 years old.

Catherine Cook is a researcher, policy analyst and advocate who leads the Sustainable Financing team.

Since joining Harm Reduction International (HRI), Catherine has developed a portfolio of ground breaking research and policy analysis on financing for harm reduction including the tracking of donor and government investment in harm reduction. She has coordinated international research, developed tools for advocates and provided regular analysis to UN and donor agencies on this topic. She was responsible for conceptualising and developing HRI’s flagship project, the Global State of Harm Reduction.

Catherine brings 17 years of professional experience in harm reduction, HIV and policy research and has published extensively on a wide range of topics related to harm reduction and public health in both civil society reports and academic literature. She was a Deputy Editor for the Harm Reduction Journal from 2015-2020 and served on the Scientific Committee for the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP).

Catherine joined Harm Reduction International in 2007 as Research Analyst, before being appointed Head of Research prior to her current position. Before joining Harm Reduction International, she worked at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

Catherine holds a BSc in Psychology from Sussex University, an Msc in Cross-Cultural Psychology from Brunel University, London. She has also completed courses in Human Rights Law in Practice at the London School of Economics and Health Economics at Oxford University.

Professor Pat O'Hare was the Executive Director of Harm Reduction International from its founding in 1996 until he stepped down in 2004. 

Pat started working in the drug field in the mid-1980s when he became Drug Education Coordinator for Sefton on Merseyside and then Director of the Mersey Drug Training and Information Centre in Liverpool. In 1989, he and Alan Matthews founded the International Journal of Drug Policy and he was the Editor from 1990 to 2000. In response to the interest created by the innovative ‘Mersey Harm Reduction Model’, Pat initiated the First International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in 1990.

Bill Stronach spent 18 years as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Drug Foundation which is one of Australia’s leading non-government organisations concerned with the prevention and reduction of drug related harms. Prior to this position, he was Director of Grassmere Youth Services located on the outskirts of Melbourne, working with juvenile offenders, homeless and sexually abused young people and their families. For twelve years before this he taught in secondary schools in the state of Victoria and the UK.

He was a Founding Director and treasurer of the International Harm Reduction Association (now Harm Reduction International); a Director of the International Consortium on Alcohol and Harm Reduction He has chaired the Boards of Anex (Association of Needle and Syringe Programs), Harm Reduction Victoria and the City of Melbourne’s Safe City Licensees Accord Monitoring Committee.

He was previously a member of the Victorian Premier’s Drug Prevention Council, the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Prevention Council, the Victorian Government’s Alcohol Strategy Planning Group and the Advisory Committee for the Centre for Harm Reduction at the Burnet Centre, Melbourne, Australia and a member of the Victorian Child Death Review Committee.

He was Chairman of the Organising Committees for the 3rd (Melbourne), 7th (Hobart) and 15th (Melbourne) International Conferences on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm

In 2012 he co-founded and continues as a Director of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health and has chaired the organising committees for the six international LEPH Conferences held to date. In 2017 he was elected to the inaugural board of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association. He brings extensive conference organising and management experience both within and beyond the public health sector.

He has been a consultant and advisor on many policy matters and projects in Australia and overseas, and contributed chapters to a number of public health, drug prevention or harm reduction publications.

Oluseyi Kehinde is the Co-Director and Advocacy Manager at YouthRISE Nigeria. For close to a decade, he has executed several development programs with a focus on human rights, drug policy, harm reduction, youth development, and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. 

He is a member of the National Technical Working Group on Drug Demand and Harm Reduction in Nigeria. He is an International Working Group member of Youth RISE. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Harm Reduction International.

Oluseyi continues to devote his expertise to strategic advocacy for global drug policy reform and sustainable development of young people in vulnerable and marginalized contexts.

Lucy joined the HRI Board in January 2019 and has been our Chair since the beginning of 2021. Lucy works as a strategy and communications adviser to charities, government departments and public sector bodies including in the areas of drug and alcohol treatment, housing and homelessness, and mental health. She is based in Brixton in London.