Drug research at the international level

The ESSD (European Society for Social Drug Research) was founded in Amsterdam in 1990 as a European association of researchers working on drug issues, from a social science perspective, on the initiative of Professor Dirk Korf. The society has 250 members, mainly social scientists working in drug research in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and the Nordic countries. The society’s main objectives are to promote social science approaches to drug research, mainly qualitative and novel research methods and to encourage early career researchers.

Before the ESSD was established, the medical and therapeutic professions long dominated drug research in most European countries. Social science and qualitative research were poorly represented in studying the aetiology and epidemiology of drug use and research on social response and social control. The creation of ESSD was a response to the need for closer collaboration within the social science community. The association holds annual conferences and publishes several books.

The organization’s conference has been held twice so far, in 2008 and 2018, organized by ELTE PPK in Budapest, the 2018 ESSD conference was organized by Zsuzsa Kaló, Katalin Felvinczi and Zsolt Demetrovics, and in 2019 Zsuzsa Kaló was the ESSD Why? Explanations for drug use and drug dealing in social drug research.