Principios de respuesta no policial a inquietudes y emergencias relacionadas con el consumo de drogas

Drug Policy Alliance plantea principios para orientar a gestores de políticas en el desarrollo de alternativas a las respuestas policiales, centradas en la persona y en la reducción de daños. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

We all care about the health and safety of our communities. Some of the top concerns we hear about include the overdose crisis, public homelessness and drug use, and perceived“nuisance” issues. It’s important that we invest in communities with the resources they need to thrive, including becoming safer and healthier.

Some policymakers, however, prioritize policing and other enforcement tactics instead of investing in communities in the ways they need. Routinelyusing police to respond to overdose, health crises, and perceived “nuisance” matters has contributed significantly to excessive police budgets. It has also led to far too many incidents involving the unnecessary use of force by police. In the pursuit of drugs, police have been given unchecked power to use aggressive tactics. In too many instances this has led to killings, particularly of Black, Latinx and Indigenous people. Communities nationwide have increasingly realized that business-as-usual policing has not stopped problematic behaviors and drugs are cheaper, more available and more potent than ever. It has caused even deeper problems, like riskier drug use patterns, a growing overdose crisis, and police violence.