About this Event

The Museum of Drug Policy is a free pop-up exhibition and cultural hub featuring live programming and art from around the world, highlighting how drug policies impact and shape our communities.



The Museum will be hosted in London for three days only - the third stop on its global tour after New York and Montreal.



In addition to the exhibition, there will be a free programme of events, which includes panels, workshops, and film screenings. Scroll down for more details.



The Museum provides a powerful, emotional experience that illustrates the harms caused by drug prohibition, and advocates for new approaches rooted in dignity, health, and human rights. It will transport audiences across the globe, pushing visitors to think and act outside the box through interactive installations, powerful documentary photos, multimedia displays, and more.



Release, the UK’s centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law, will be hosting the Museum as part of our 50th anniversary celebration. We have been providing free non-judgmental, specialist advice and information to the public and professionals on issues related to drug use and drug laws since 1967. We will also be celebrating Release’s own work and history alongside the Museum.



For more information, please visit: https://www.release.org.uk/museumofdrugpolicy



All exhibitions and events are open to the public for free, and will take place in a stunning and atmospheric warehouse space - provided by Ugly Duck. The Museum of Drug Policy, which was first launched in New York City in April 2016, is supported by the Open Society Foundations.



You can start planning your visit by reading up on some of the workshops and panels below. Most artwork and exhibits can be accessed while the below events take place.



All listed events are FREE!





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[T] = Talk

[W] = Workshop

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★ FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3 ★



10AM - 12PM: [W] Y-STOP Sessions

In partnership with StopWatch, Release is running Y-STOP trainings. These sessions teach young people how to apply a harm reduction approach during a stop and search interaction, through group discussion, film and role play. The sessions are suitable for 11–25 year olds.

To attend a session please email amal@release.org.uk in advance.



12PM: [W] Project Mission Gallery “The Check-In”

‘The Check-In’ is a conversation series held by Project Mission Gallery as a part of their interdisciplinary programming. This event centres on Women of Colour, QTIPoC (Queer, Transgender, and Intersex People of Colour), and Non-Binary people, with the goal of building community and providing the opportunity to share in collective discussion space in response to themes of drugs, policing, racism, ageism, sexism, and gentrification.



1PM: [T] Stop and Search: Carson Arthur (StopWatch), Zoe Carre (Release), Ken Hinds (Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group), Katrina Ffrench (Chair Islington Stop and Search Independent Community Monitoring Group)

This session will explore the issue of policing, in particular, drugs policing and how it impacts on people of colour and young people. With drug stop and searches accounting for 59% of all stop and searches nationally discussion will focus the effectiveness of stop and search and what real reform looks like. The panel will also consider the recent calls for increased stop and search in light of an increase in knife crime.



2PM: [T] Rights and Wrongs - Human Rights and the War on Drugs: Kojo Koram (School of Law, University of Essex) Naomi Burke-Shyne (Harm Reduction International) Luciana Pol (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Argentina, CELS).

Chair: Rick Lines (Harm Reduction International)

The negative human rights impacts of the war on drugs is an increasingly important part of the drug reform debate. This session will bring together key leading advocates and researchers to reflect on the current global challenges and opportunities.



3PM: [T] Reimagining Sex Work: Paulina Nicol (English Collective Prostitutes) Del Campbell (Ugly Mugs) Frankie Mullin (Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement, SWARM).

Chair: Kirstie Douse (Release)

Bringing together some of the leading sex workers rights organisations, this panel will explore decriminalisation of all sex work activities and discuss what the future of sex work should look like.



4PM: [W] Support, Don’t Punish - Local Actions: Global Voice

Support Don't Punish is a global campaign to end the “war on drugs”. Around 26th June, activists gathered in events across 206 cities to support harm reduction and drug policy reform. This workshop will present the highlights from the campaign, and demonstrate how to take part in 2018 and beyond.



5PM: [T] Drug Policy & Policing Poverty - Harms and solutions: Kasia Malinowska (Open Society Foundation) Steve Rolles (Transform) Niamh Eastwood (Release) Marie Nougier (International Drug Policy Consortium)

Chair: Noah Stone

A Q&A session chaired by Noah Stone, entrepreneur and judge of Shark Tank, with a panel of drug policy experts looking at the harms of prohibition, the evidence for alternative approaches and how drug policy is ultimately a tool of social control.



6PM: [T] Drugs In Clubs: High Time For Reform?

Henry Fisher (The Loop), Jordan Gross (Oval Space), Deputy Chief Constable Adrian Hanstock.

Moderator: B.Traits (BBC Radio 1 / DJ).

East London venue Oval Space host this future facing discussion looking at harm reduction within the nightlife industry. The panel will look at current legislation and the problems surrounding it; where drug policy in clubs is headed; how we can influence politicians and the police to create a framework that is more compatible with harm reduction, and creative solutions we can deploy in the meantime.

This a ticketed event but check if there is availability on the door.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drugs-in-clubs-high-time-for-reform-tickets-39219873698



7PM - 10PM: Sex Worker’s Opera

Originally devised in 2014, the award-winning Sex Worker’s Opera will tour the UK for the first time this autumn following a multitude of sell-out performances around the UK, Ireland and Greece. Comprised of 50% Sex Workers, this provocative show gives a platform for sex workers - tired of being spoken for - to finally tell their own stories on their own terms. Smashing together genres, Sex Worker’s Opera collides opera with hip-hop and incorporates sound art, projections and poetry to showcase an unflinchingly honest and upliftingly human insight into the lives of Sex Workers around the world.

This a ticketed event but check if there is availability on the door.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sex-workers-opera-tickets-38807663767





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★ SATURDAY NOVEMBER 4 ★



10AM - 12PM: [W] Y-STOP Sessions

In partnership with StopWatch, Release is running Y-STOP trainings. These sessions teach young people how to apply a harm reduction approach during a stop and search interaction, through group discussion, film and role play. The sessions are suitable for 11–25 year olds.

To attend a session please email amal@release.org.uk in advance.



12PM: [W] Project Mission Gallery “Check in”

‘The Check-In’ is a conversation series held by Project Mission Gallery as a part of their interdisciplinary programming. This event centres on Women of Colour, QTIPoC (Queer, Transgender, and Intersex People of Colour), and Non-Binary people, with the goal of building community and providing the opportunity to share in collective discussion space in response to themes of drugs, policing, racism, ageism, sexism, and gentrification.



12PM - 2PM [W]: Training Today’s Youth for a Better Tomorrow: Niamh Eastwood, Kirstie Douse, Daniel Williams, Zoe Carre (Release staff)

In partnership with Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK (SSDP UK), Release will be delivering training sessions to current and aspiring young drug policy activists. The training sessions will introduce students to the following topics: ‘UK Drug Policies and the Law’, ‘University (Zero Tolerance) Drug Policies’, ‘Harm Reduction 101’, and ‘Communicating with Press and Media’.

The session is open to students in higher education in the UK.



2PM: [W] Drugs 101 with Suzi Gage (University of Liverpool)

Suzi Gage is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Liverpool. She has a particular interest in understanding associations between substance use and mental health. She’ll discuss her work as well as her Say Why to Drugs podcast that she presents with rapper Scroobius Pip.



3PM: [T] Criminalisation by Any Means: Sebastian Gardiner (25 Bedford Row) Niki Adams (English Collective of Prostitutes) Kirstie Douse (Release)

Chair: Lorna Macfarlane (Release)

Criminalisation of people who use drugs, sex workers and homeless people, is not limited to the main drug and sex work offences. This session explores the use of anti-social behaviour laws and proceeds of crime cases after conviction to additionally target these groups.



4PM: [T] Criminalisation & Prison Industrial Complex: KUCHENGA

Chair: Imani Robinson

KUCHENGA is a black trans feminist who publishes online journalism at Wear Your Voice and gal-dem magazines while working with Black Lives Matter UK, and Bent Bars, a letter-writing project for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, gender-variant, intersex, and queer prisoners in Britain.



5PM: [T] Safe Abortion Now?: Jade Jackman

Chair: Imani Robinson

In the early days Release not only supported people affected by punitive drug laws but also women seeking advice on abortion rights. Jade Jackman is a filmmaker who likes to take a creative approach to contemporary political issues. Earlier this year, she documented women campaigning for abortion rights in Northern Ireland after Theresa May's deal with the DUP. In this talk Jade will speak about her creative activism supporting women's rights and standing up to injustice in the criminal justice system.



6PM: [T] Creative Activism: Michael Skolnik & Daveen Trentman (The Soze Agency)

Artists have always played important roles in creating culture - and if we shift culture, we can shift policy. Soze will join in conversation with artists featured in the Museum of Drug Policy and discuss their work both as visionaries and strategists.



7PM - 10PM: Film Screening of the 13th + Q&A with local activists: Alex Kelbert (Black Lives Matter UK, Reclaim Holloway), Kelsey M (Empty Cages Collective, Hollaback London), Ru Pinder (London Campaign Against Police and State Violence)

Chair: Imani Robinson (Black Lives Matter UK, sorryyoufeeluncomforable Collective)

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans and examining the racialised nature of the War on Drugs.





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★ SUNDAY NOVEMBER 5 ★



11AM: [W] The Collective Liberation Project

The Collective Liberation Project creates positive change by teaching people about oppression, racism and sexism, and how to dismantle it within themselves and their communities. In this workshop, participants will explore their relationship to power, privilege and learn about how racism functions in the UK.



1PM: [T] Counter Culture & the Media: Duncan Campbell & JS Rafaeli

Duncan Campbell, the Guardian’s former crime correspondent, in conversation with JS Rafaeli, author and journalist. JS will be talking to Duncan about the ways that the media has reported on drugs - and how organisations like Release have helped to bring reality to the debate.



2PM: [T] Chem Sex- How to stigmatise in 3 easy lessons: Patriic Gayle (Gay Men's Health Collective) & Jess Bradley (Trans Officer, NUS)

It's a recurring sore how derogatory and demeaning labels are applied and popularised by society to the lives and identities of LGBTQIA+ people. They were 'pansies' in the 60s, ‘poofters’ in the 70s, 'plague carriers' in the 80s, 'queers' in the 90s (though the word has been reclaimed) and today 'chemsex' has thrown up whole new vocabulary into the mix perpetuating stigma and drugs criminalisation - the tip of the iceberg as one explores the issues facing wider LGBTQIA+ community.



2PM-4PM [W] Sex Work, Art and Activism: Laur M and Sugar Sanglante

Art is often used in activism, providing an alternate means of access for difficult subject matters and new modes of communication for voices that often go overlooked. Join Laur and Sugar to explore how art is used by sex workers demanding their work be decriminalised. This workshop includes a Q&A.



3PM: [T] A woman’s place is in drug policy: Camille Barton (The Collective Liberation Project), Erin O’Mara (Black Poppy) & Jennifer Fleetwood (Goldsmiths University)

Whether as users, or as players in the drug trade, women are often dismissed as too few, too powerless and too unimportant. Women are often neglected in discussions about drug policy and research on drugs and drug markets.This panel draws on diverse experience from advocates and researchers who will argue that women play a vital role in drug markets, drug cultures and drug policy reform.



4PM: [T] Back to the future: Drugs and drug markets in 50 years’ time: Jennifer Fleetwood (Goldsmiths University) Tony Saggers (formerly with the National Crime Agency) Niamh Eastwood (Release)

A lot has happened since Release was founded in 1967. Drugs and drug laws have undergone incredible changes. The last 50 years saw the introduction of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, re-classifications of cannabis and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. Drugs themselves have moved on: from cannabis to spice; heroin to fentanyl, drugs - and drug policy - are continually evolving. This panel asks some experts to speculate on what the next 50 years might hold.