From The Drug Policy Alliance:
Last week, DPA released an innovative report, Municipal Drug Strategy: Lessons in Taking Drug Policy Reform Local, laying out a roadmap for how U.S. cities of all sizes can address the harms of both drug use and the failed war on drugs, such as mass criminalization and the overdose crisis.
First pioneered as a public health measure in Europe in the 1980s and 90s, Municipal Drug Strategies challenge local communities to work from public health, racial justice and human rights frameworks instead of defining people who use drugs as criminals in need of coercion and punishment.
“Despite the federal government’s failures, most drug policies are carried out at the local and state levels — which has spurred many municipalities to fight back by moving drug policy reforms forward with urgency,” said Emily Kaltenbach, DPA’s Senior Director of National Criminal Justice Reform Strategy. “City governments are increasingly positioned at the center of innovation in solving complex large-scale public problems like drug overdose and mass criminalization.”
Our report offers a structure for local jurisdictions interested in undertaking a Municipal Drug Strategy while providing an overview of the principles and elements of this approach.
Read the report here.
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