New book tackles drug policy
Michael Torres, CAMH media relations, 416.595.6015, media@camh.net
Benedikt Fischer, not available before Feb. 22, date of book launch, bfa11@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
A new book co-authored by a Simon Fraser University health scientist calls for a renewed approach to setting drug policy that is evidence-based, realistic and coordinated.
Benedikt Fischer, an SFU professor and CIHR/PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health and MSFHR Senior Scholar, is one of 12 internationally known co-authors of Drug Policy and the Public Good.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) will host a launch event for the book on Monday, Feb. 22, 10 a.m. to noon, at its Russell Street site in Toronto.
Fischer and two other co-authors, Thomas Babor at the University of Connecticut, and Juergen Rehm, at CAMH and the University of Toronto, will present their book’s key findings.
Renowned public health experts, including B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, will discuss the book’s implications for policymaking.
The book notes that the current patchwork of drug policy responses by modern societies and international organizations takes little account of the available research on problematic psychoactive drug use and interventions.
“What the book provides,” says Fischer, also co-author of Cannabis Policy: Moving beyond Stalemate, “is not a prescription for what any society or policy maker should do. Instead, it is an analysis of what science indicates will be the likely consequences of exercising particular options.”
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