The 6th event in our ESRC funded seminar series focuses on treatment, community interventions and harm reduction approaches to new drugs (NPS/HED/IPED etc).

The seminar will discuss latest guidelines and best practice on the topic, but extends this to take a critical perspective on how and why particular approaches are prioritised, and what role evidence plays in development of interventions. We will also seek to better understand opportunities for users and the marketplace to complement our suite of responses, and how policy environments may facilitate or present barriers to particular intervention actions.

Lunch and refreshments provided

Draft schedule:

12:00-13:00 Arrival, registration, and lunch

13:00 Prof Harry Sumnall (CPH LJMU; Chair for the day) - Welcome and opening remarks:

13:10 Dr Alessandro Pirona (EMCDDA) - Interventions and drug policy environments in the EU

13:40 Dr Kathryn Oliver (University of Oxford) – How policy makers use evidence

14:10 Dr Katinka van de Ven (Birmingham City University) – ‘Blurred lines’: Anti-doping, national policies, and the performance and image enhancing drug (PIED) market in Belgium and the Netherlands

14:35 Joe Kean (Nine Zero Five, Bradford) - Tailoring harm reduction services for anabolic steroid users

15:00 Coffee Break

15:20 Dr Rebecca Askew (MMU) - Drug Dealers Can Advertise: How Drug Cryptomarket Vendors incorporate harm reduction into the sale of illicit substances

15:45 Jamie Tully (LJMU PhD student) – Cognitive enhancers and learning technologies in University students

16:00 Rick Bradley (Addaction) – Young People and NPS in Practice: Changing Perceptions and Calculated Risks

16:20 Emma Begley (CPH, LJMU) - Social rituals and sanctions informing online harm reduction

16:40 Delegate discussion

17:00 Close