Apr 2012

The ALICE RAP Policy Brief 1 – ‘Alcohol – the neglected addiction’ aims to provide a succinct overview on the scientific evidence for decision-makers and advocates working on creating effective alcohol policy.

Final version of the 12-point ALICE RAP Policy Frame, which is put forward to inform a redesign of the governance approaches to reduce the individual and societal harm done by addictive drugs and behaviours. The Policy Frame has originated out of the work of ALICE RAP, as well as the six books that have been produced by ALICE RAP as a series with Oxford University Press.

A draft was discussed at some length and revised following comments of the ALICE RAP Steering Group. This final version has been informed more widely by comments from a number of AR scientists in an open consultation with all members of the ALICE RAP project.

It is increasingly recognised that illegal drug policies are in need of reform - they bring considerable collateral damage through criminalization and violence due to vying for market dominance, they impair health, result in large prison populations and weaken governance around the world.

UNGASS 2016 provides a unique opportunity for opening the door to policy shifts, paving the way for reform of the global drug control regime to permit responsible legal regulation, as is happening with cannabis. There is no one simple pathway for effective reform; it will require experimentation and trial and error and will also require a standard benchmark to address health outcomes across all drugs, legal and illegal. In the field of toxicology, risk assessment for human consumption of a wide range of products is based on margins of exposure (MOE) analysis. We propose MOE as the standard tool to drive reform and monitor drug policy worldwide.