20/05/2026
We are pleased to share the abstract for Nicole’s keynote presentation, “If We Keep Looking Back, We’ll Keep Going That Way”: Envisioning an Alcohol and Other Drugs Sector After Drug Prohibition
Drug laws and policies have always been controversial. Much of their contestation stems from the disconnect between what decision-makers say they do versus what they achieve in practice. According to governments, drug prohibition prevents crime and social disorder. Yet overwhelming evidence demonstrates that prohibition is primarily motivated by the desire to control, regulate, and surveil unruly populations. Under prohibition, public safety is reduced; negative health outcomes proliferate; inequalities are exacerbated; and the illegal drug supply has become so unpredictable and potent that it is now a leading cause of unnatural death in Canada and the United States.
In Canada, the government has claimed that drugs are a health issue while still criminalizing those who use them. Contradictory messaging, paired with a decade of half measures that failed to deliver meaningful results, has sown confusion among the public. Support for progressive drug policy reform has waned dramatically as a result. Not only are harm reduction services closing - people who use drugs are increasingly being scapegoated for multiple, intersecting crises as their fundamental rights are being eroded. In many jurisdictions, decades of hard-won progress have been erased seemingly overnight.
These trends are not unique. They are being replicated across the world, and they demand a coordinated response from members of the alcohol and other drugs sector. Together, and drawing from lessons learned in the Canadian context, we will ask what it could look like to address the problems at their source. How do we forge bonds of solidarity across borders, collectively name the costs of prohibition without compromising service provision, and imagine a future where all people, regardless of their relationship to substances, have access to dignity, autonomy, and choice?
Stay tuned for the full conference program coming soon
Registrations are open, so grab your tickets here https://www.winterschool.org.au/
