Drug policy research at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research

Abstract

The Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research (CRF) has since its foundation in 1991 had a strong tradition for research in drug control. However, researchers at CRF have also started to study drug policy not only from a control perspective but also from a perspective of health and welfare issues. From 2005, CRF has developed a particular interest in how welfare policies related to drug issues come into being and how they are implemented in practice in different welfare institutions. These studies, in opposition to more established drug policy studies based primarily on quantitative and statistical data, use a broader variety of empirical data collected using qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations. The article investigates the development of drug policy studies at CRF and discusses the theoretical and analytical implications of this development. The development is related to, first that the organization of the Danish drug field has changed and a variety of new social and health initiatives have emerged, necessitating a thorough investigation; and, second that more anthropologists and sociologists have been employed at CRF, complementing researchers trained primarily in legal studies.