Social Policy Research Centre
The overarching goal of this project was to test whether participatory processes that engage with values, community goals and diverse stakeholders can enhance the design of drug policy solutions. Three current drug policy design dilemmas faced by governments (decriminalisation, cannabis social clubs and mandatory treatment) formed case studies in which policy proposals were developed with participation from diverse stakeholders.
The aims were to:
- Study whether trials of participatory policy design processes can generate new illicit drug policy design solutions on three topics of current concern
- Analyse how participation shapes the policy design solutions, including analysing differences and similarities across topics, jurisdictions, participatory processes and constituents
- Advance the theories and practices of participation by testing them in the unique drug policy context (with its focus on illegal and often hidden behaviours, the need for diverse constituents, the contested nature of knowledge in the field and the central role of values in determining policy design solutions).
Outcomes
Our work uncovered the social-material work, and affective labour necessary for maintaining participatory collectives. Policy reform processes will benefit from this maintenance of capacity. Rather than our work simply responding to calls for more (formal) participation, we have studied how participation is made, ‘in the wild’, and discovered the political effects and impacts on how we are governed. We learnt that fostering spaces of discussion and participation, beyond formal inclusion (being at ‘table’), can create new policy solutions. In relation to our cannabis work, we brought together participants in the Canberra Botanic Gardens to share their gardening experiences: shifting the frame entirely away from drug policy and affording new experiences and effects (as detailed in the podcast, see below). This has led to new discoveries in relation to how to govern a plant.
Opening out the idea of ‘in the wild’ participation in drug policy, that we studied in this project has enabled a new way of thinking about how drug policy is made, how the ways in which multiple forms of participation come to bear on decision-making. Noticing forms of participation that have not been studied until this project, has opened up both the theory of participation and the practices of participation. We learnt that participation works in an ecological manner – and that forms of participation generated in one domain also have profound impacts on another. The project empowered the participation of lay experts, people who use drugs, and people who may have not previously connected with illicit drug issues and engaged civil society collaborators, who are positioned to take forward the policy design solutions.
Research Centre
Research Area
Drug Policy Modelling Program
- Years
- Publications
- Funding agency
- Collaborators
2020 to 2022
Journal articles
- Barrett, L., Kearnes, M., McLauchlan, L., Lancaster, K., Mellor, R., & Ritter, A. (2025). Regulating the Plant Versus Regulating the Drug: Learning From Backyard Cannabis Cultivation in the Australian Capital Territory. Contemporary Drug Problems, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509251334927
- Ritter, A., & McLauchlan, L. (2022). Citizens’ juries and their role in improved alcohol policy: damp squib, or useful tool? Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 30(4), 413–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2022.2050185
- Mellor, R., Kearnes, M., Lancaster, K., McLauchlan, L., & Ritter, A. (2022). Established Tables and Emergent Huddles: Exploring the Processes of Participation Associated with the Policy Changes to Opioid Pharmacotherapy Treatment in Australia in the Context of COVID-19. Contemporary Drug Problems, 49(4), 385-404. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509221123001
- McLauchlan, L., Lancaster, K., Kearnes, M., Mellor, R., & Ritter, A., 2022, “It’s professional but it’s personal”: Participation, personal connection, and sustained disagreement in drug policy reform, International Journal of Drug Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103903
- Barrett, L, Mellor, R, Ritter, A, McLauchlan, L, Kearnes, M. (2022) Navigating the grey: Experiences of incremental cannabis reform in Australia. Drug and Alcohol Review https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13518
- Mellor, R., Kearnes, M., Lancaster, K., McLauchlan, L. & Ritter, A. (2021) Making policy in emergencies – insights for routine policy making. The case example of opioid pharmacotherapy maintenance. DPMP Monograph No. 35. Sydney: UNSW Social Policy Research Centre. https://doi.org/10.26190/thwy-pq45
Other media and publications
- Ritter, A., Lancaster, K., McLauchlan, L., Barrett, L. & Kearns, M., (2023). As many states weigh legalising cannabis, here's what they can learn from the struggles of growers in Canberra, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/as-many-states-weigh-legalising-cannabis-heres-what-they-can-learn-from-the-struggles-of-growers-in-canberra-212009
- What do we know about home-growing cannabis in Australia? ABC Radio Canberra, 5 Sept 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/canberra-breakfast/professor-alison-ritter-cannabis-growing-canberra/102814896
- Drug Policy Voices podcast: Season 2, Episode 2: What do we mean by evidence and expertise in drug policy? Kari Lancaster and Alison Ritter. https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/the-drug-policy-voices-podcast/3289342
Conference presentations
- Barrett, L. (2023), Backyard cannabis cultivation in Canberra and the lessons for illicit drug policy, Australian Social Policy Conference, Canberra
- Barrett, L., Kearnes, M., McLauchlan, L., Ritter, A., Lancaster, K., & Mellor, R., (2023), The realities of domestic cannabis cultivation in Australia under a semi-legalised regime, Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), Leuven, Belgium
- Ritter, Lancaster, McLauchlan, Kearnes (2023) “Participation and engagement in drug policy reform” International Harm Reduction Conference, Melbourne
- McLauchlan, L., & Barrett, L., (2022), Pot plants and green thumbs: A talk and workshop by UNSW, Social Policy Research Centre, Seminar Series, 30 November 2022
- Barrett, L. & Parfitt, C. (2022), At the edge of the market: The diverse possibilities for economic organisation in the emerging cannabis industry, New Edges of Economic Geography Australasian-Pacific Symposium, University of Sydney, 1 December 2022
- Laura McLauchlan with Curtis Chan, Penny Dorsch, Bruce Bradbury, Jason Grebely, Tony McNaughton, Ash Watson & Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor (2022). Innovative and Non-Traditional Research Outputs. Seminar for the UNSW Centre for Social Research in Health and UNSW Social Policy Research Centre on 30 November 2022. Online.
- Ritter, A. (2021) Making policy in emergencies – insights for routine policy-making. The case example of opioid pharmacotherapy maintenance. Social Policy Research Centre Seminar Series, 12th October 2021
- Mellor, R. (2021) Making policies in emergency conditions: what can we learn? Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW, 4 November 2021
- Barrett, L. (2021) Incremental policy making: the gap between intention and implementation, Australian Social Policy Conference, UNSW, 4 November 2021
Australian Research Council, Discovery Project
- Jason Chilvers (School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK)
- Uniting
- ACT Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs Association (ATODA)
- Association for Participating Service Users (APSU)
