Amanda Feilding
Amanda Feilding has long advocated an evidence-based approach to drug policy that seeks to minimise the harms associated with drug use. She established the Beckley Foundation in 1998 to help reform drug policy by creating evidence-based; health-orientated; harm-reducing; cost-effective drug policies which recognise human rights.
The Foundation has been responsible for 8 successful international drug policy seminars hosted at the House of Lords to educate ‘thought leaders’ and has commissioned 35 Drug Policy Reports and Proceedings Documents, including the Global Cannabis Commission Report. This work was co-published with Oxford University Press as a book entitled: “Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate”. The book was disseminated worldwide and has been very influential, specifically directing President Cardoso’s thinking towards the decriminalisation and regulation of cannabis.
Following on from the success of the Cannabis Report the Foundation commissioned a New Draft UN Convention on All Illegal Drugs, prepared by Professor Robin Room and a team of international lawyers, which will allow signatory countries to decriminalise personal use and possession of all drugs, and put the domestic market for one or more controlled drugs under a regulatory rather than criminalising regime. This Convention, along with the first ever UK cost/benefit analyses of a fully regulated legal cannabis market, will be discussed and debated at a Meeting at the House of Lords on 17/18 November. Invitees include: former, and present, Presidents; current heads of state; and ministers of countries interested in reform. The meeting is being organised in close association with The All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform and the Global Commission for Drug Policy. The Meeting will also provide a key platform for the Commission to present their findings from their recent Report.
The Beckley Foundation Scientific Program investigates the physiology and pharmacology of cannabis, psilocybin, LSD and ‘legal highs’ to better understand how these compounds work, and identify potential therapeutic applications. Working in collaboration with academic partners such as Imperial College; John Hopkins University; Berkeley University; The Institute of Psychiatry; and University College London investigating treatments for addiction, anxiety, pain relief and early warning monitoring systems to detect Alzheimer’s. Collaborating with the Institute of Psychiatry and University College London the Foundations work was among the first to identify the importance of cannabidiol (CBD) in cannabis as an anti-stress agent to balance THC. The Foundation is currently conducting the first ever research into the effect of psilocybin on the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results of which are providing exciting new information about the possible use of psilocybin as treatment for depression and cluster headaches, and as an aid in psychotherapy.
