Designing illicit drug policy solutions: the role of participation

The overarching goal of this project is 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) will form case studies in which policy proposals are developed with participation from diverse stakeholders.

The aims are 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).