CPS Research Fellow Kathy Gyngell, Professor Neil McKeganey of The Centre for Drug Misuse Research and other contributors remember Professor Hamid Ghodse in The Times on Thursday 14th February 2013.
To view the article as its original posting, please visit The Times website (£)
“The achievements of Professor Hamid Ghodse (obituary, Feb 7) on the national stage of addictions medicine and research were substantial by any academic yardstick (over 350 peerreviewed papers and more than half a dozen key textbooks). But it was his achievements on the international stage that were truly remarkable.
Elected president of the International Narcotics Control Board a record ten times, Hamid Ghodse came to occupy a unique position in building the remarkable consensus that sits at the heart of international drug control.
We should be in no doubt as to the scale of his achievements in that domain. Drug abuse is a truly international and exceedingly complex phenomenon, and yet over at least the past 15 years Hamid Ghodse, and his close colleagues, knitted together a consensus in international drug control that would be hard to find in any other area of public policy.
We cannot help wondering what the scale of the world’s drugs problem would have been in the absence of that consensus. Hamid would have been the last to celebrate his success, acutely aware as he was of the destructive impact of the drugs problem on individuals, families, communities and economies. He was a man whose massive achievements were paired with a gentle modesty and who was as comfortable working on the world stage with national leaders as he was helping his patients in the consulting room and encouraging junior colleagues in the tutorial room. Addiction medicine and international drug control has truly lost one of its most remarkable giants.”
To view the article as its original posting, please visit The Times website (£)
Date Added: Friday 15th February 2013
