5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Prohibitionism and War on Drugs were the prima facie of Drug Policy and Regulation across the Globe during a great part of the 20^th Century. This is still the case in many countries. However, in the recent decades we observed many experiences and experiments on Drug Policy and Regulation in the Global South and North with a variety of scope and scale on how drugs framed as restricted or illicit may be accessed by users: decriminalization; legalization, partial or total; access for medical use, research, recreational or religious purpose; types of drugs that may be accessible; possession, production, commerce; public health and harm reduction rationales; etc.

This session welcomes empirical studies, qualitative or quantitative, on these new experiences on Drug Policy and Regulation or how such tendencies relate to prohibitionist tactics and dispositifs. By putting different papers about multiple contexts into conversation, we hope to learn with each other and develop a more comprehensive view on the state of the art of Drug Policy and Regulation in democratic societies.