Transform Parliamentary reception to launch new publication

Last Wednesday Transform held our annual reception and officially launched our latest publication ‘After the War on Drugs, Tools for the Debate’ in the House of Commons with the support of Paul Flynn MP. There was a good turn out, with a distinguished audience including the peers Lord Turner, Lord Cobbold, and Lord Mancroft, the MPs Brian Iddon, Lynne Jones, Evan Harris, and Edward Garnier (from the Tory front bench) who made a brief appearance. Also present were with Henry Hoare, Transform Patron and senior partner at Hoare’s Bank, representatives from the National Audit Office, the Drummer from Blur and aspiring politician, Dave Rowntree, as well as a selection of key journalists, civil servants, academics, NGO representatives and Transform funders, colleagues and friends.

Paul Flynn opens proceedings at Transform's reception in the Attlee Room,
in the new Portcullis House extension to the Houses of Parliament

Paul Flynn introduced the evening and spoke, amongst other things, on the importance of shifting the Government’s resources away from the criminal justice system and into public health and treatment, and his experiences as the point man parliamentary drug law reform in the Commons. This was followed by a presentation from Steve Rolles, Transform Information officer and author of the new Transform Publication 'Tools for the Debate’ introducing the broad themes and highlighting a selection of key passages to illustrate how the book can be used to engage in and take forward the debate on drug law reform. The presentations were rounded off by Danny Kushlick, Transform Director, with a review of some of Transform’s key recent achievements to date, and plans for the future.

The evening then turned into a lively question and answer session, which included discussions on how to deal with critics, and Transform's vision for the future: what a controlled and regulated market might look like. The evening concluded with an opportunity for some networking over a glass of splendid House of Commons wine.

An MP3 of the presentations and question and answer session is available: please email info@tdpf.org.uk