Following its successful launch in New York in April 2016, the Museum of Drug Policy’s international traveling exhibit made its first stop in Montréal on May 15-17, 2017 as part of the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference, before making its way to Europe. Mikhael Tara Garver re-envisioned it's original version into a traveling version in a “pop-up museum”, Museum in a Box, format. Visitors got the opportunity to view forty-one various art pieces from local and international artists that show how drug policies affect our friends, families and communities.
This ephemeral cultural hub supported by Open Society Foundations was launched in 2016 during the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs. The Museum offers a powerful, emotional experience that illustrates the harms caused by current prohibitionist drug policies and advocates for new approaches rooted in dignity, health, and human rights.
"This exhibit calls attention to the health and human impact of drug policy in ways that research studies and PowerPoint presentations cannot," said Daniel Wolfe, Director of International Harm Reduction Development at the Open Society Foundations. “The artists whose work is displayed here remind us that scientific evidence is not enough, and that we must also open other channels to inspire commitment to make change in how we treat drugs and those who use them.”
