WFAD 2014 Speakers

Experts from all over the world addressed the three themes of the Forum:

 

  • Cannabis. Issues related to legalization of drugs and potential consequences
  • How drug treatment and the criminal justice system are working together. How drug courts work in different areas and the potential to spread this method to the rest of the world.
  • Issues concerning gender-related differences and similarities.

 


Speakers

H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden

 

H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden
will open the forum

Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden is the Patron of World Forum Against Drugs. She is also involved in numerous charity organizations. She frequently participates in anniversary events, openings of conferences and symposia and other official events. She is engaged in the work of several NGO’s helping underprivileged people around the world.


Miss Asia Ashraf

 

Miss Asia Ashraf
Sunny Trust International, Pakistan

Director Rehabilitation and Head Psychology Department Sunny Trust International Addiction Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre.

Starting as an intern/volunteer with Sunny Trust International (STI) in 2003, Miss Asia have served STI fulltime since January 2004 till present. Responsibilities covered treatment and rehabilitation as well as prevention. She is involved in development and implementation of effective treatment & rehabilitation protocols/methodology, prevention planning and strategies, advocacy and awareness raising. Cooperation and coordination with numerous governmental, non-governmental bodies, participation in national and international workshops, conferences and forums. Presently as Director Rehabilitation and Head Psychology Department, also in charge of the STI’s prevention team and training, two realms in the process of being reorganized as separate units.


Richard J. Baum

 

Richard J. Baum
Senior Policy Analyst, Office or National Drug Control Policy, USA

Richard Baum has worked since 1997 at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in various positions. He currently serves as Chief of the six-person International Policy Branch within the Office of Supply Reduction. He coordinates multilateral issues for ONDCP with the United Nations and the Organization of American States and works with a wide variety of international NGOs on drug policy issues.

Prior to joining ONDCP he worked as a criminal justice researcher for the non-profit Center for the Community Interest, as Editor of the monthly Washington-based newsletter, Crime & Drug Policy Report, as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control and as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Benjamin Gilman.

Baum has a B.A. in Government (1987) from Georgetown University, an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University Graduate School (1991), and a Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from the University of Colorado at Denver (2004). He has completed professional education programs at the Federal Executive Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.


Kat Belendiuk

 

Kat Belendiuk
Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado, USA

Kat Belendiuk, Ph.D. has studied substance use disorders as an intramural research fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a graduate researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, and a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado. With a joint doctorate in clinical and developmental psychology, Dr. Belendiuk applies a developmental psychopathology perspective to examine longitudinal substance use outcomes for adolescents and young adults following treatment interventions and changes in drug policy. Dr. Belendiuk is currently examining the effect of marijuana medicalization in Colorado on adolescent marijuana use.


Sven-Olov Carlsson

 

Sven-Olov Carlsson
International President, World Federation Against Drugs

Sven-Olov Carlsson, Bachelor of Science, started his work career as a Municipal Chief Executive and worked for 20 years in this field. Since 2002 he is the International President of IOGT International, a worldwide community of NGOs working in the field of alcohol and drug policy and prevention. Mr. Carlsson is member of the Board of Eurocare – the European Alcohol Policy Alliance, Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) and International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA). Between 1995-2009 he was the President of IOGT-NTO in Sweden. Mr. Carlsson was also the President of the Swedish Youth Temperance Organization (UNF) between 1977-1981.

In 2009 he was elected the International President of World Federation Against Drugs.


Anna Carlstedt

 

Anna Carlstedt
PhD, President, Swedish National Forum on Volontary Social Work

PhD Anna Carlstedt had her Doctors degree from Stockholm University in 2005 and is currently Fellow Researcher at Ersta Sköndal University College in Stockholm. She is the renumerated President of the Umbrella NGO Organization Swedish National Forum on Volontary Social Work as well as of the Swedish Temperance Movement IOGT-NTO. She is the author of several books. Her academical memberships include: ISTR (International Society for Third-Sector Research), S.F.D.E.S, (Société Française des Études du Seizième Siècle) and R.S.A (Renaissance Society of America).


Antonio Maria Costa

 

Antonio Maria Costa
Former Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Antonio Maria Costa was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed, from May 2002 until August 2010, to the positions of Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV).

Mr. Costa holds a degree in political science from the University of Turin (1963), a Degree in mathematical economics from the Moscow State University (1967), and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley (1971).

Mr. Costa has spent his career working on issues such as drugs, organized crime (like human trafficking and corruption), and terrorism. Rooted in a restrictive and balanced drug policy, Mr. Costa has combined prevention and treatment with law enforcement aimed at both supply and demand.


Jorn Dangreau

 

Jorn Dangreau
Judge, Ghent, Belgium

After getting his Law Degree from the University of Ghent Jorn Dangreau participated in a postgraduate Master study in Law and Economics. He started as a solicitor/barrister at the Bar of Bruges in October 1993 and was nominated by the Minister of Justice as a judge in the court of first instance Ghent in October 2000. In 2007 he adapted (together with Annemieke Serlippens) the main principles of the Drug Treatment Courts (DTC) in the existing Belgian legal system and they got the support of the Minister of Justice as to implement a DTC in the court of Ghent in May 2008. He is also member of the board of the International Association of Drug Treatment Courts (IADTC) and in 2012 he was elected to be a member of the High Council of Justice in Belgium.


Robert L. DuPont

 

Robert L. DuPont
M.D., President, Institute of Behaviour and Health, USA

Robert L. DuPont, MD, psychiatrist, has for more than 30 years been a leader in drug abuse prevention and treatment in USA. Among his many contributions he was the first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and was the second White House Drug Chief. In 1978 Dr. DuPont became the founding president of the Institute for Behaviour and Health, Inc. and in 1982, with his longtime colleague, Peter Bensinger, he founded Bensinger, DuPont & Associates. .

Dr. DuPont maintains an active psychiatric practice specialising in addiction and anxiety disorders, and has been Clinical Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine since 1980.


Maxine Ellis

 

Maxine Ellis
Judge, Kingston, Jamaica

Judge Maxine Ellis attended the University of the West Indies where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the Mona Campus in Kingston Jamaica and a Bachelor of Laws Degree at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. She graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in 1999 and was called to the Bar in Jamaica in November 1999. Thereafter Judge Ellis worked at Consumer Affairs Commission for two years. She was a clerk of the court at the Resident Magistrates’ Court for the Corporate Area located in Kingston Jamaica and then Assistant Director of Public Prosecution at the Offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Judge Ellis was appointed to the bench as a Resident Magistrate for the Corporate area in 2010 where she is presently assigned primarily to the Gun Court. In addition, she has been presiding in the Drug Treatment Court since 2011.


José Ángel Prado García

 

José Ángel Prado García
Centros de Integración Juvenil, A.C., Mexico

Jose Ángel Prado holds an M.D. degree from Universidad Anahuac, with a specialization in General Psychiatry from the Army and Air Force University, Central Military Hospital.

He was also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow on Prevention and Treatment of Addictions at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He holds a certificate in the treatment of substance abuse from the Ophri Institute in Jerusalem, Israel.

Mr. Prado García has been the Director for Addictions of the Government of the Distrito Federal, and also the Technical Director of the National Council against Addictions (CONADIC). Currently, he is the Deputy Director-General of Operation and Board of Patrons of Centros de Integración Juvenil.

In addition, Mr. Prado García has worked for the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey; and teaches graduate courses at the Universidad del Valle de México, the Universidad Autónoma de Morelos, and at the Psychiatry Residency of the Central Military Hospital.


Boro Goic

 

Boro Goic
Recovered Users Network, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Boro Goic is a chairman of RUN (Recovered Users Network), which is established under EURAD (Europe Against Drugs) in Brussels.

After years in addiction, he recovered from a drug abuse problem and started to help people to come out of addiction. He is a founder of Celebrate Recovery, NGO for re-socialisation of former addicts, which is based in his hometown Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina. He supported several NGO’s, networks and conferences in their establishment and is very active in grass root activities is his country and region.

Politically he is active in CSF (Civil Society Forum) in EU, and several institutions on EU level with a goal to promote a voice for recovery from addiction.


Marika Griehsel

 

Marika Griehsel
Journalist and independent documentary filmmaker

Marika Griehsel is a Swedish journalist and independent documentary filmmaker. She was the Africa Correspondent for the Swedish public service television company (SVT) between 1990 and 2001, based in Johannesburg. Marika Griehsel has been awarded some of Sweden’s most prestigious journalism awards for her personal and extensive reports.


Jonas Hartelius

 

Jonas Hartelius
Special advisor, Carnegie Institute, Sweden

Jonas Hartelius, MBA, CPP, has been involved in research, lecturing and policy analysis related to drug control for more than 40 years. He has written more than 20 books in the field. He has been an expert on new drugs to prosecutors and courts including the Supreme Court of Sweden. He has served as the chair of the Board of Directors of the Swedish Carnegie Institute, and he is currently scientific adviser to the institute.


Jamey H. Hueston

 

Jamey H. Hueston
Judge, First District Court, Maryland, USA

Jamey H. Hueston is an associate judge on the First District Court in Baltimore City, Maryland. She has presided as a judge for 20 years and is the longest serving drug court judge in the world.

Judge Hueston is an early Drug Court pioneer and is a founding member of The National Association of Drug Court Professionals and served as its immediate Vice-chair. She founded and chaired the Maryland Judicial Problem Solving Courts Committee and is the founder and administers the Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court. She has spent over 30 years developing and managing public mental health and substance abuse programs throughout the Northwest of USA. She has written, lectured and consults extensively regarding problem solving and drug courts.


Peter Hultén

 

Peter Hultén
General Secretary of the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists at Swedish Poisons Information Centre

Peter Hultén is working at the Swedish Poisons Information Centre as a licensed pharmacist and expert in drugs of abuse, especially new psychoactive substances. Peter is also a member of the Swedish branch of the “Network of the Actual Drug situation In Scandinavia” (NADIS), an expert group advising governmental bodies relating to trends and risks regarding new drugs of abuse. He is the General Secretary of the EAPCCT (European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists), an association organising an annual international congress in Europe dealing with clinical toxicology and poisonings, and where in recent years novel synthetic drugs of abuse has become frequently recurring.


Per Johansson

 

Per Johansson
Secretary General, National Association for a Drug-free Society, Sweden

Secretary General, National Association for a Drug-free Society, Sweden.

Per Johansson has been active in the Swedish National Association for a Drug Free Society (Riksförbundet Narkotikafritt Samhälle; RNS) for three decades and has tracked the development of Swedish drug policy as it shifted from permissive to restrictive in nature. In 2009, he co-founded the World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD) and is today secretary of the Board.


Rogers Kasirye

 

Rogers Kasirye
Executive Director, Uganda Youth Development Link, Uganda.

Rogers Kasirye, Executive Director, Uganda Youth Development Link, board member WFAD. BA in Social work and Social administration and an MA in Human Rights from Makerere University, Kampala. Mr. Kasirye has undertaken several consultancy positions as a technical Coordinator, he is also a consultant with Mentor foundation UK. He is the local expert advisor to UNODC in Eastern Africa and is actively involved in capacity building of NGOs and Communities in Drug Demand reduction activities. He is a lead person on Vienna NGO committee on drug abuse. [Read more about Rogers Kasirye]

Mr. Kasirye is currently involved in two NIDA supported research tasks on adapting materials on substance abuse and street children. He is a researcher on the global study on gender and alcohol studies coordinated by WHO. Mr. Kasirye was awarded the 1999, United Nation Civil Society Award winner, offered by UNODC and The Federal Republic of Austria and The City of Vienna and the Africa Region Youth Services award 1999, by the Commonwealth youth programme, African centre. He also authored several books and papers on drug abuse, social protection, and commercial sexual exploitation.

 


Maj-Inger Klingvall

 

Maj-Inger Klingvall
Chairman, Women’s Organisations Committee on Alcohol and Drug Issues (WOCAD), Sweden

Maj-Inger Klingvall is a political scientist with a long career in politics; Councilor, member of the Swedish Parliament, cabinet minister, ambassador to Mozambique and active at the Foreign Ministry. She has a longstanding commitment to the women’s movement. She is currently Chairman of WOCAD (Women’s Organisations Committee on Alcohol and Drug Issues) and Vice Chairman of UNICEF Sweden.


Martien Kooyman

 

Martien Kooyman
M.D., Ph.D., psychiatrist and psychotherapist, the Netherlands.

Martien Kooyman, MD, Ph.D, psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He was the founder and medical director of several therapeutic communities for addiction and also of treatment centres. He has been lecturer at the Department of Preventive and Social Psychiatry of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. At present he is, amongst others, Member of the Advisory Council for The Minister of Justice on Prison Detention and Youth Protection and Vice President of EURAD, a European Foundation for Prevention and Treatment of Addiction to Drugs.


Maria Larsson

 

Maria Larsson
Minister for Children and the Elderly, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden

Maria Larsson is a Swedish politician and a trained schoolteacher. Minister Larsson is currently Minister for Children and the Elderly Maria Larsson is responsible for social services which includes alcohol, narcotics, doping and tobacco in addition to elderly care, individual and family care, and support measures to people with disabilities. The Government’s child rights policies are also within her responsibility and they aim to apply and strengthen the rights and interests of the child in society, based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.


Ralf Löfstedt

 

Ralf Löfstedt
Head of section, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden

 


Bertha K. Madras

 

Bertha K. Madras
Professor of Psychobiology, Harvard Medical School, USA

Bertha Madras, Ph.D., Professor of Psychobiology, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (faculty since 1986) and Associate Director for Public Education in the Division on Addictions. She served as Deputy Director, Demand Reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), following unanimous Senate confirmation (2006-2008). She advocated for a public health approach to prevent, intervene and treat illicit and prescription drug abuse.

As a neuroscientist, Dr. Madras investigated brain responses to addictive drugs and developed new brain imaging agents and therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders. Author of over 130 scientific manuscripts, she co-edited a book “The Cell Biology of Addiction”. She received an NIH MERIT award, NIDA Public Service Award, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry Founders Award, and 19 patents with collaborators.


Carmen Masias-Claux

 

Carmen Masias-Claux
Executive President of National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs, Peru

Currently Executive President of the National Commission for Development and a Drug-Free Life – DEVIDA, governing body for the fight against drugs in Peru. Degree in Psychology, M.D. Family Therapy, Ph.D. in Psychology.

Worked at the Information and Education Center for the Prevention of Drug Abuse – CEDRO as Deputy Director and is a founding member of the institution, created in 1986. Member of the Board of Directors of Movimiento Manuela Ramos, lobbyist institution that politically advocates gender issues. Consultant to the Kellogg Foundation, The Partners of the Americas, USAID, UNESCO/UNFPA, PAHO, CAF, FAD, and others, and to the government of Chile in narcotics affairs. Professor at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola – USIL, and also at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru – PUCP (Catholic University). Professor to the online master’s degree in drug dependence at several Spanish and Peruvian universities.


Neil McKeganey

 

Neil McKeganey
Ph.D., Director, Centre for Drug Misuse, UK.

Neil McKeganey BA, MSc, Ph.D. is a sociologist and has carried out research in a wide range of topics related to drugs misuse including undertaking work on pre-teen drug use, on the link between drugs and crime, on the effectiveness of drug enforcement activities, on the effectiveness of drug treatment services and on the impact of drugs policy.

Neil McKeganey is the founding director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow which he directed from 1994 to 2011. He now runs the Centre as an independent research group undertaking studies in a wide range of areas related to the use of illegal drugs drugs.

Neil’s recent publications have included work on the effectiveness of drugs enforcement operations on local drug markets, on the development of a recovery focus in drug treatment policy, on the effectiveness of drug misuse treatment services and on the growing problem of novel psychoactive drug abuse.


Madeline H. Meier

 

Madeline H. Meier
Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, USA

Madeline Meier received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri in 2010, and she completed her postdoctoral training at Duke University in 2013. Dr. Meier is now an assistant professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches classes on substance-use disorders and conducts research on the causes, course, and consequences of substance-use disorders. Her current research projects involve (a) determining how accurately childhood and adolescent risk factors can predict persistent adult substance dependence, (b) documenting the physical health consequences of adolescent substance abuse, and (c) investigating how a novel technology – retinal imaging of microvessels – can inform our understanding of the links between adolescent substance use, neuropsychological function, and psychiatric disorder.


David K. Mineta

 

David K. Mineta
Deputy Director of Demand Reduction, Office of National Drug Control Policy, USA

David K. Mineta was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on June 22, 2010 to be the Deputy Director of Demand Reduction for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In this position, Mr. Mineta oversees ONDCP Office of Demand Reduction which focuses on promoting drug prevention and drug treatment programs, as well as the agency’s newly created focus on programs for individuals in recovery from addiction. [Read more about David K. Mineta]

Mr. Mineta’s focus on drug prevention and treatment services has been longstanding. Since 1996, Mr. Mineta has worked with Asian American Recovery Services (AARS) throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He started as a manager of a youth prevention program, but rose quickly to associate director and, since 2007, deputy director. As deputy director, he oversaw all agency grant writing and institutional technology departments, and assisted in strategic planning, community consortiums, and other necessary functions. Before joining AARS, Mr. Mineta was a counselor in the San Jose Unified School District and later in Santa Clara’s Alcohol and Drug Department.

 

From November of 2000 through July 2010, Mr. Mineta served as a trustee with the Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City. In May 2009, he was appointed to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention National Advisory Council.

Mr. Mineta studied Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley and earned his Masters of Social Work from California State University, San Jose in 1990.

 


Sten Nordin

 

Sten Nordin
Mayor of Stockholm

Sten Nordin was born in 1956 in Nyköping, south of Stockholm. He studied Economics and Sociology at Uppsala University, and has held a number of Public Offices since the early 1980’s. Sten Nordin is currently Mayor of the City of Stockholm and holds a position as president of the City Executive Board. Mayor Nordin is also group leader of the Moderate Party in the City of Stockholm, chairman of Stockholm International Fairs and member of the Executive Board of the Swedish Transport Administration.


Fred Nyberg

 

Fred Nyberg
Ph.D., Professor, Uppsala University, Sweden

Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences Division of Biological Research on Drug Dependence at Uppsala University, Sweden Fred Nyberg, PhD, is currently the Head of Uppsala University (UU) Interdisciplinary Center of Addiction (U-FOLD). He is employed as Senior Professor at the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy, UU. During 1988-1992 he was employed as Professor in Pharmacology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, UU. In 1993, he was appointed Professor in Biological Research on Drug Dependence.

During 2002-2007 he was part time employed as Head of Research Issues at The National Drug Policy Coordinator and in 2008 he joined the Advisory Board at The ANDT unit at the Social Ministry directed to drugs and drug addiction. He was Chairman for the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences between 1999-2006 and during 2006- 2011 he acted as Dean of The Faculty of Pharmacy, before being appointed Head of U-FOLD. His field of expertise is neuropharmacology with particular emphasis on brain mechanisms in chronic pain and drug dependence. Current research is directed to brain damage induced by addictive drugs as well as brain repair based on neuroendocrine regulation of cognitive behavior.


Michel Perron

 

Michel Perron
Chairman, Vienna NGO Committee

Michel Perron was re-appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) for another five-year term by the Governor in Council of Canada in November 2012. For more than 12 years, Mr. Perron has passionately championed a national and collaborative approach to prevent and address the impacts of substance abuse.

Working with all levels of government as well as the not-for-profit and private sectors, CCSA has successfully led many first-ever national initiatives for Canada, including an overarching national action plan on substance abuse, a national alcohol strategy, a national workforce strategy for professionals working in the field, and a national youth drug prevention strategy. These strategies represent new ways of thinking and working together to deliver practical and tangible results for Canadians. [Read more about Michel Perron]

On the international stage, Mr. Perron is Chair of the Vienna Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Drugs (VNGOC), which serves as the primary link between NGOs and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He also led the Beyond 2008 initiative—developed by NGOs from more than 115 countries, it represents the most comprehensive, consensus-based declaration and recommendations on global drug policy matters. Today, VNGOC’s work guides and forges new alliances between NGOs, member states and the United Nations to enable countries to find new ways to reduce the impacts and harms associated with substance abuse.

 

Prior to his appointment with CCSA, Mr. Perron held a number of positions in the federal government with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Health Canada and the Office of the Solicitor General.

Mr. Perron is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg and the Harvard Business School.


Martin Raithelhuber

 

Martin Raithelhuber
Illicit Synthetic Drugs Expert, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Martin Raithelhuber is an Illicit Synthetic Drug Expert with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Laboratory and Scientific Section. He manages the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analysis, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, which improves the capacity of countries to generate, analyse, report and use information on illicit synthetic drugs including new psychoactive substances.

Martin Raithelhuber started working with UNODC in 2005 and coordinated UNODC’s Global Illicit Crop Monitoring Programme for several years. He has regularly contributed to UNODC’s World Drug Report as well as to regional and national drug reports in Asia and South America. Mr. Raithelhuber started his UN career at UN-Habitat in Nairobi in 2002, monitoring Millennium Development Goals and supporting the establishment of urban monitoring systems in Africa. He holds a PhD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.


Solomon Rataemane

 

Solomon Rataemane
Head of Department of Psychiatry at the University of Limpopo, South Africa

Prof Solomon Tshimong Rataemane is the head of Department of Psychiatry at the University of Limpopo (MEDUNSA CAMPUS in Pretoria). In February 2014, prof Rataemane was elected to the position of President of the African Association of Psychiatrists and Allied Professions (AAPAP). He has special interest in child psychiatry, mood disorders and addiction medicine. He has served as deputy chairperson and chairperson of the Central Drug Authority of South Africa from 1995 to 2005. Prof Solomon is a Board member of ICAA (International Council on Alcohol and Addictions) and serves on the Health Committee of the Health Professions Council of South Africa assisting in physicians’ health management.

He was appointed Deputy Chair of the Medical Research Council of South Africa for the triennium 2007 – 2010, and also serves fourth term as member of the Colleges of Psychiatry within the CMSA (Colleges of Medicine of South Africa). He has extensive community involvement including participating in seminars on understanding and managing alcohol and drug abuse (addiction medicine); childhood related problems; policy development in Government and policy directives within the South Africa Society of Psychiatry.


Kian Reme

 

Kian Reme
Chairman, European Cities Against Drugs

Kian Reme holds a BA in History and MA in Theology. He was elected chairman of European Cities Against Drugs (ECAD) in 2013 and has been a member of the board since 2011. Mr. Reme is also vice chairman of Nablus Society (Twin City) since 2012. Currently Mr. Reme works as Manager and dialogue Pastor.


Gabriel Romanus

 

Gabriel Romanus
Former minister for Social Affairs, Sweden

Gabriel Romanus was Member of the Swedish parliament 1969-82 and 2002-06. Minister for social affairs 1978-79. President/CEO of the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly (Systembolaget) 1982-99. Chair of the Swedish State Council for Social Research (SFR) 1993-2000. First president of the Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network (NordAN), an umbrella organization for some 90 NGOs in the Baltic and Nordic countries, 2000-2009. Former board member, and now honorary vice president of the International Council of Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA)


Kevin Sabet

 

Kevin Sabet
Executive Director, Smart Approaches to Marijuana

Dr. Sabet is the Director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida and an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. He is currently Executive Director of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), which he co-founded with Patrick J. Kennedy. He is the author of Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana (2013, Beaufort) and a consultant to numerous domestic and international organizations, including the United Nations, through his company, the Policy Solutions Lab.

From 2009-2011, he served in the Obama Administration as the Senior Advisor at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). As a Marshall Scholar, he received his doctorate and masters degrees in Social Policy at the University of Oxford and B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.


Mike Sabin

 

Mike Sabin
Member of parliament, New Zealand

Mike Sabin is a member of parliament for Northland, New Zealand. He is a nationally and internationally-recognized expert and authority on methamphetamine and drug policy. Mr. Sabin is involved with international drug policy as a member of the International Task Force for Strategic Drug Policy and a fellow and associate of numerous international drug free coalitions.

He is the author of publications on the efficacy of harm prevention, demand reduction focused drug policy initiatives, including solutions to the methamphetamine crisis in New Zealand. Mike is a respected commentator and expert lecturer on methamphetamine, drug abuse, drug policy strategy nationally and internationally including the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.


Annemie Serlippens

 

Annemie Serlippens
Prosecutor, Ghent, Belgium

After getting her Law Degree from the University of Ghent in 1994 Annemie Serlippens started as a sollicitor/barristor at the Bar of Ghent. From august 1999 until February 2000 she worked as advisor of the Minister of Justice concerning illegal drugs and weapons. From February 2000 on, she is working in the Office of the public prosecutor of Ghent, in the Department of organized crime. She is the magistrate responsible for illegal drugs and author and magistrate responsible for the pilot project ‘Proefzorg’ (diversion of drug abusers on the level of the public prosecutor).

Together with Jorn Dangreau, judge at the court in Ghent, she tried to adapt the main principles of the Drug Treatment Courts in the existing legal system and got the support of the Minister of Justice as to implement a DTC in the court of Ghent in 2008. Annemie Serlippens is responsible prosecutor for the Ghent DTC.


Jón Sigfússon

 

Jón Sigfússon
Youth in Europe, Iceland

Jón Sigfússon holds a Master of Public Health and Education from the University of Reykjavik, Iceland. Mr. Sigfússon is the current director of Youth in Europe and the Icelandic Centre of Social Research and Analysis (ICSRA), Reykjavik University, Iceland. He has published and lectured extensively “Evidence based policymaking in the field of drug prevention” and “Adolescence Substance Abuse Prevention”.

Youth in Europe is an international 5 year drug prevention project, initiated by the Pan-European Cities against drugs organisation, ECAD in 2005, in cooperation with European Cities. The project was then extended for a further 5 years in 2011. The goal of the project is to compare strategies and seek best practices in drug prevention in order to provide a valuable source of information for all those who are involved in the ongoing task of protecting young people from the injurious effects of drugs.


Fredrik Spak

 

Fredrik Spak
Associate Professor and specialist in general psychiatry and social medicine, Göteborg University, Sweden

Associate Professor, MD, PhD and specialist in general psychiatry and social medicine. Spak’s present medical position is in primary health care in Göteborg, Sweden, and his main work is devoted to addiction medicine and prevention of alcohol related problems, both clinically and in research.

Spak’s research concerns epidemiology, particularly concerning women’s alcohol problems, implementation of secondary prevention in the alcohol field, both in primary health care and occupational health, studies on khat-use in Sweden, and evaluations of care and prevention in the alcohol field.

Spak is lecturing in many organisations with emphasis on addiction medicine, addiction epidemiology, general prevention science, implementation and alcohol policy. He is also working on the board of The Swedish Society for Alcohol and Drug Research and is a scientific adviser to The National Board of Health and Social Welfare.


Lotten Sunna

 

Lotten Sunna
Parliamentary candidate for the Feminist Initiative and Managing Director of Ulfshyttan Treatment Center

Lotten Sunna was one of the founding members of swedish feminist party Feminist initiative in 2005. She was a director on the first three boards and was one of three people writing the original political program for the party. In the 2014 elections she is running for parliament in place number 10 on the list for F! She has formulated politics around alcohol and drug issues throughout her work and has done debates and lectures on the topic of gender and addiction. She has also worked with treatment of addicts since the early 1990’s and is a MD at Ulfshyttan Treatment Center in Dalarna since 2006.


Nora Volkow

 

Nora Volkow
MD, Director of National Institute on Drug Abuse, USA

Nora D. Volkow, M.D. is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health, US. Dr. Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain. As a research psychiatrist and scientist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects and addictive properties of abusable drugs.

Dr. Volkow spent most of her professional career at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York, where she held several leadership positions including Director of Nuclear Medicine, Chairman of the Medical Department, and Associate Director for Life Sciences.

Dr. Volkow has published more than 530 peer-reviewed articles and written more than 80 book chapters and non-peer reviewed manuscripts, and has also edited three books on neuroimaging for mental and addictive disorders.


Raymond Yans

 

Raymond Yans
Member, International Narcotics Control Board

Raymond Yans was the head of the Drug Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1995-1999 and 2003-2007); charged with the national coordination of the ratification and implementation process of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 (1995-1998). He participated in the launching of the European Union Joint Action on New Synthetic Drugs of an early warning system to alert Governments to the appearance of new synthetic drugs.

Between 1995-2007 he was a member of the Belgian delegation to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Mr. Yans has been a member of the International Narcotics Control Board since 2007 and was President of the Board 2012 and 2013.


Nelson Baziwelo Zakeyu

 

Nelson Baziwelo Zakeyu
Drug Fight Malawi, Malawi

is a social worker and activist against the use of marijuana, harmful consumption of alcohol and tobacco smoking. He has vast experience in policy advocacy and implementation as well as in mobilizing people for support and ownership. He has worked as an Executive Director for Drug Fight Malawi since 2006.

 

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