Dr Papamalis contributes research publication on drug control policies to the Joint Report of the EMCDDA

Dr Fivos Papamalis, Part-time Lecturer at our Psychology Department, recently co-authored a joint EU publication on Public Expenditure on Supply Reduction Policies that was published by the Joint Report of the EMCDDA – Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe. Mr Papamalis has served as a member of an expert group engaged by the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe for the project ‘Possible adverse effects and associated cost of drug control policies’. In 2015, Mr Papamalis had an individual contract with the Council in order to examine the current state of the art of the effects and associated costs of drug control policies to individuals. Subsequently, was also hired as scientific consultant by the Norwegian Ministry of Health to undertake written tasks in support of the work of the Expert Group. Among other things he contributed to (i) developing the tables of the unintended consequences of drug control policies, including Health, Social and economic functioning, Safety and public order and Criminal justice and (ii) writing the main chapter on the Unintended Consequences of drug control policies including scientific literature, fully referenced. Due to his scientific background and technical skills, he also signed a contract with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway, in 2016, to further support the work of the Expert Group where he successfully developed a comprehensive narrative report of the associated harms of drug control policies and on the evidence based harm reduction interventions. During his tenure, Mr Papamalis also examined the available EU databases on the drug control public expenditures, in order the propose strategies for estimating different components of drug-related public expenditure across the EU and to facilitate the transition towards an evidence based resource relocation.

This Joint EMCDDA-Pompidou Group Report is part of the work conducted by the Expert Group on “Possible adverse effects and associated cost of drug control policies”. The final report will come out in December, following permanent correspondents’ consultations.