Improving drug policy: The potential of broader democratic participation

Policies concerned with illicit drugs vex governments. While the ‘evidence-based policy’ paradigm argues that governments should be informed by ‘what works’, in practice policy makers rarely operate this way. Moreover the evidence-based policy paradigm fails to account for democratic participatory processes, particularly how community members and people w ho use drugs might be included. The aim of this paper is to explore the political science thinking about democratic participation and the potential afforded in ‘deliberative democracy’ approaches, such as Citizens Juries and other mini-publics for improved drug policy processes.

Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - February 8, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Alison Ritter, Kari Lancaster, Rosalyn Diprose Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research