At the 1st Asia Regional Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP) on October 14-15, 2019, I presented a paper reflecting on the ways in which drugs are mobilized as populist tropes in four Asian countries - the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Thailand - drawing from historical and contemporary examples.
The conference was the first of its kind in Asia and was a significant step in bringing together researchers (and advocates) in the region, given the many region-specific concerns, not least of which are punitive drug policies. Earlier this year, Dr. Claudia Stoicescu and I co-wrote a civil society report for the International Drug Policy Consortium summarizing the major developments in the region over the past decade.
