ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to shed light on the first milestone in the development of Belgian drug policy between 1996 and 2003. It reviews how the PWG has obtained and used scientific knowledge, and whether the final recommendations and conclusions of the PWG have been enacted upon this evidence, taking into account the policy environment which contains many actors and pressures. The so-called bottom-up approach, characterised by public deliberation and participation which challenges the traditional top-down approach and also recognises the plurality of expert knowledge including informal expertise, has been one of the strong characteristics of the development of Belgian drug policy. For some scientists, the most fruitful way to cultivate a rational policy approach is to emphasise scientific credibility and methodological rigour. In the political struggle on the criminalisation of drugs scientific knowledge was mainly used as ammunition for political sides or even side-stepped by political commitments.
