Third Contemporary Drug Problems Conference

Abstract

Contemporary Drug Problems (CDP) recently held its third biennial conference from September 16-18, 2015, in Lisbon, Portugal. Hosted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the 2015 conference built on the success of the previous two conferences held in Prato, Italy, in 2011 and Aarhus, Denmark, in 2013. 2011 conference sought to explore the ways in which and problems are constituted socially and politically. 2013 conference continued and expanded these discussions to analyze how the complexity of the multiple constitution of drugs may be attended to in research, policy, and practice. 2015 conference theme, Encountering alcohol and other further contributed to the project of encouraging critical thinking and novel approaches to alcohol and other drug research established in the previous two conferences. This most recent CDP conference provided a forum to ask important questions of increasingly influential approaches to alcohol and other drug (AOD) research that emphasize relationality, contingency, and emergence, and their potential importance for grappling with some of the complex issues arising in contemporary AOD research (some of which were also explored at the 2011 and 2013 conferences). key themes of the conference included:* the co-constitution of people, drugs, and places;* the importance of closely scrutinizing common assumptions about the power of pharmacology and the agency of consumers; and* the implications of understanding drugs and their consumption as phenomena that emerge in complex assemblages made up of a range of forces.The conference was opened by CDP editor David Moore and EMCDDA Scientific Director Paul Griffiths. Following the welcome to delegates and acknowledgment of the conference partners (in addition to EMCDDA, the National Drug Research Institute, the Burnet Institute, Aarhus University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Professor Moore introduced the first of three fascinating keynote presentations.The first keynote address was delivered by Professor Alison Ritter (Drug Policy Modelling Program, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales) and was entitled The dynamics of drug policy: Relational, emergent and contingent. Professor Ritter examined the relational and socially constructed process of policy development. Drawing together contemporary concepts of performativity with established approaches to policy development analysis, Professor Ritter argued policy is never fixed but instead made in practice. Importantly, she also argued that, although challenging, this insight provides an opportunity for developing novel approaches to address AOD issues.Dr. Emmanuel Kuntsche (Addiction Switzerland) delivered the next keynote address at the close of the second day of the conference with his keynote presentation entitled Understanding the weekend drinking of young adults from an ?events' perspective: possibilities and limitations of using per-sonal cell phones. …