Dr Vendula Belackova

Dr. Vendula Belackova is an Endeavour visiting fellow with the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (August 2014 – January 2015). She is working on a comparative study of cannabis policies and markets in the Czech Republic, Australia (New South Wales) and the U. S. (Florida) that will increase the evidence-base for cannabis policy makers. Her work involves quantitative and qualitative data analysis, policy analysis, and in particular, interviewing cannabis users and market participants.

Dr. Belackova graduated in addictology, economic policy and media studies and her home institution is the Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. In the past five years, she has been coordinating research projects on cannabis markets, the social costs of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, and on new psychoactive substances in the Czech Republic, and in the E.U. In 2008, she spent one academic year at Florida State University as a Fulbright visiting scholar. Apart from her academic work, she has acted as a spokesperson of a petition on medicinal cannabis that has achieved legislative changes leading to patient´s access to medicinal cannabis in the Czech Republic.