Values, science and harm reduction in drug policy: can evidence neutralise morality?

The support for evidence-based or evidence-informed drug policy has often been framed in terms of an opposition between evidence (clean; scientific; neutral; value-free) and politics (dirty; partisan; value-laden). This article aims to transcend this dualistic view by introducing another element - that of morality. It does so by analysing qualitative data from interviews with 27 stakeholders who were directly involved in drug policy research, lobbying, implementation and decision-making in England, UK and New South Wales, Australia. Recent shifts away from a formal policy commitment to harm reduction and towards an approach promoting recovery in both countries have reinserted elements of values and morality in drug policy, taking harm reduction away from its original middle ground between prohibition and legalisation. It is therefore timely to question whether, by exploring morality as a framing device, we can better understand the deep-seated values which inform stakeholders’ commitments to particular positions and, in so doing, move away from the too simple evidence versus politics dichotomy