The goal of drug policy is clear, according to the United Nations, whose convention on narcotic drugs largely sets the framework for what individual states do. The aim, the UN says, is to end the ‘serious evil’ of addiction. This, it adds, is to be achieved by preventing public access to dangerous substances, while at the same time ensuring adequate provision of narcotics to meet medical and scientific need.  

The challenge of these twin purposes – ensuring availability for medical use, preventing availability for recreational use –encapsulates the ‘dual use dilemma’ that has confronted drug policymakers for the past 150 years, as Julia Buxton, Professor of Justice at Liverpool John Moores University, explains in this episode of the podcast.  

Julia reflects on how personal experience drew her into the field, why US power has played such a disproportionate role and what happens when countries attempt reform. The conversation explores not only the human costs of criminalisation, but also why it has proved so hard to shift drug policy towards a different, health-led future.

Julia Buxton is Professor of Justice at John Moores University in Liverpool and British Academy Global Professor. 

Find out more about the book at: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/what-is-drug-policy-for

The transcript is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/09/17/podcast-drugs-the-path-that-led-to-prohibition/

Timestamps:

2:19 - Tell me about the challenge of talking about drug policy to such different audiences

5:26 - Can you tell us about the story of how you came to study drug policy?

8:30 - Has the medicinal use of drugs improved in the past 25 years?

12:36 - When do you think it's useful to start looking in the historical record for the first signs of what would become our current global policy towards restricting access to certain drugs?

19:28 - What is path dependency in the context of evolving drug policy?

22:05 - How influential is the US in this context?

30:55 - Can you tell us about efforts to decriminalise some drugs in some countries?

41:50 - Are there things that give you a little bit of hope for a better future?

Intro music:

Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax

Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com 

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