Roger Howard is Chief Executive of the UK Drug Policy Commission and has been CEO and Director of a number of drug and crime charities (Crime Concern, DrugScope & Nacro). Previously he worked in local government.

Roger is a member of the Scottish Government’s Drug Strategy Delivery Commission. He has been a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the Criminal Justice Council and has acted as Advisor to the Local Government Association and the Association of Police Authorities. He was a member of a number of official and professional inquiries, including a Joint Royal Colleges Working Group on Addictions; a BMA Advisory Group on drug & alcohol treatment; and the Chief Medical Officer’s advisory group on clinical guidance for the treatment of drug dependency.

In the mid-1990s Roger examined local partnership working to tackle drugs for the government, which then formed a basis for the setting up of Drug Action Teams. He also set up the Welsh Drug and Alcohol Misuse Unit for the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Training on Drug & Alcohol (STRADA) initiative with Glasgow University for the Scottish Government.