October 2012 For immediate release Academic to guest lecture on UK substance abuse strategies Social Policy and Crime

expert Dr Mark Monaghan will speak about the evolution of UK drug strategies at a guest lecture to be held at Leeds Metropolitan University. The seminar which will consider the movement from the maintenance of druguse to abstinence, is open to the public, will take place at 2pm on Wednesday 10 October in Lecture Theatre E of the Rose Bowl at the Universitys city centre campus. Dr Monaghan, who is a lecturer at the University of Leeds, has undertaken PhD research which followed the scientific and political battles through which cannabis classification decisions were made in the UK in the last decade. He commented: Politically, the idea that certain kinds of drugs and drug use are linked to crime has underpinned drugs policy in the UK since around the mid 1990s. This continues to be the case, but the means of tackling the problem seem to be changing and these changes are mirrored in many of the developments of the Coalition governments social policies. Dr Monaghan, who is an Associate Editor of the journal Evidence & Policy, lectures in social policy and crime. His first research monograph entitled Evidence versus Politics: Exploiting Research in UK Drug Policy? was published last year by Policy Press.

This is the first in Leeds Metropolitans Social Sciences Group Guest Lecture series to be held of the new academic year. Professor Ieuan Ellis, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, said: This guest lecture addresses a subject which affects our society at large so will be of immense interest to many of our students and the wider public. It is a great pleasure for Leeds Metropolitan to have Dr Monaghan who has such a valued expertise on this important and topical subject, visit our University to deliver this seminar. If you would like to attend please confirm to s.rooke@leedsmet.ac.uk Ends For further details please contact Julia Williams in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 8125978 or email j.t.williams@leedsmet.ac.uk Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 25,000 students and around 3,000 staff. The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie. Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824. International students rated the University top in the UK for language support, accommodation quality and learning spaces in the 2010 Autumn Wave of the International Student Barometer and sixth in the world for the quality of its lectures. We have over 1,500 international students from 122 countries around the globe.

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