Biography
Professor Owen Bowden-Jones is a Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry at the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, London and an Honorary Professor at University College London.
In 2010, Owen founded the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, an innovative service offering treatment for emerging drug problems, including novel psychoactive substances and club drugs. The service has since expanded to provide treatment within local sexual health services and universities.
National roles include President of the Society for the Study of Addiction, Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge, trustee at the charity Student Minds and Registrar at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Owen is the past-Chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was previously a national clinical adviser to Public Health England. He has been an adviser to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
His research interests include emerging drugs harms, particularly in young people, and with colleagues has produced the internationally acclaimed NEPTUNE clinical guidance and associated learning resources.
Owen recently published a book for parents on how to have conversations about drugs with their child. He was awarded a CBE for services to addiction rehabilitation in the King’s Birthday Honours list 2025.
Declaration of interests
Owen is employed as a consultant psychiatrist at Central North-West London NHS Foundation. He is Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Registrar for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, trustee for Student Minds, Senior Fellow at the Faculty of Medical Leadership
and Management, Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy,
University of Cambridge, and Honorary Professor at University College London. He works in a private practice one day per week.
