Niamh Eastwood is the executive director of Release, the national centre offering legal services for drug users.  

She started at Release as a legal advisor. Now, having worked in drug policy for the last fifteen years she’s co-authored many of Release’s advice booklets and drug policy related papers including ’The Colour of Injustice: 'Race', Drugs and Law Enforcement in England and Wales’. One of the aspects of drug laws she’s most passionate about is how disproportionately they affect the most vulnerable in society. 

Accordingly, she’s advocating for drug policy reform in the UK by giving talks and lectures, contributing to drug policy journals and publications as well as drafting many of Release's briefings for parliamentarians and policy makers. 

Release 

The Numbers in Black and White: Ethnic Disparities in the Policing and Prosecution of Drug Offences in England and Wales 

MDMA (Ecstasy)  

Cannabis 

Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis 

Heroin 

Police told not to use smell of cannabis in stop and search amid racism allegations  

Amber Marks 

Drug Detection Dogs and the Growth of Olfactory Surveillance: Beyond the Rule of Law? 

Cocaine 

Psychedelics 

Drug Action Against Drugs 

Release’s playing cards