Evidencing drugs in uncertain worlds: an interdisciplinary workshop

Description

Evidencing drugs in uncertain worlds: an interdisciplinary workshop

"We are in a time of profound global change. Political instability and shifting landscapes of scientific governance, alongside climate destruction and widening social and economic inequalities, are affecting drug use and harms, and our responses to them. At the same time, new technologies and modes of surveillance promise actionable information for rapid responses to changing drug markets, while local communities are mobilising radical action in the face of overdose and other harms. This interdisciplinary workshop will bring together sociological, clinical, epidemiological, criminological, and practice-based perspectives, to consider how evidence-making practices in the drugs field can not only contribute to addressing uncertainties, but do so in a manner responsive to an emergent and evolving situation of need. What constitutes ‘evidence enough’? What are the boundary thresholds we use in our evidence-making practices? In uncertain times, how might we remain open to forms of evidence and expertise often absented from ‘business-as-usual’ evidence-based intervention? How can complexity be navigated, through time and iteratively, when there is the imperative to act fast and prevent harm? How might multiple forms of knowledge be brought to bear? How might we better grapple with values and ethico-political concerns? The workshop will open a space for dialogue and engage with a range of contemporary case studies and issues in the drugs field including the implementation and evaluation of supervised injecting facilities, drug checking, safer supply, early-warning systems and response, overdose prevention, and new developments in treatment and harm reduction.

Speakers:
Professor Suzanne Nielsen, NHMRC Leadership Fellow and the Deputy Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre, Melbourne
Associate Professor Sarah Larney, Département de médecine famille et de médicine d'urgence, Université de Montréal
Dr Chelsea Shover, Assistant Professor-in-Residence, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Professor Matthew Hickman, Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology, Bristol Medical School
Dr Amanda Roxburgh, Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist, Burnet Institute, Melbourne
Dr Marianne Jauncey, Medical Director, Uniting Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre - Sydney MSIC
With an introduction by Professor Kari Lancaster, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath.
"

Period	9 Jun 2025
Event type	Workshop
Organisers	Department of Social & Policy Sciences, Addiction and Mental Health Group (AIM), Bath Beacon for Harm Reduction
Location	Bath, UK United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International