Professor Nick Crofts, Director of the Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health (CLEPH) and LEAHN recently participated in an event regarding ‘Drug Policy Dialogue in South Eastern Europe’.
Below is a publication arising from the event with an excerpt about CLEPH and LEAHN’s work in the field.
Cooperation between drug law enforcement, health, and social services in South Eastern Europe
Author: Thanasis Apostolou
(Excerpt)
The Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health – the Amsterdam Declaration
Conceptualising drug use as a public health issue reconfigures the law enforcement role in drug policy as that of public health partner. This is a traditional role of police, who is partner with health and welfare agencies to promote public health goals in many areas – mental health, violence prevention, alcohol regulation, and many others. The Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health, based in Australia, is working to help revise the police identity and role in drug policy, so that drug policing becomes oriented towards public health goals, very much in partnership with drug treatment and mental health services. CLEPH runs biennial international conferences on law enforcement and public health, building research and knowledge networks to help construct joint action and partnerships with police and public health, within which context drug policy and the practice of drug policing become reoriented towards public health. CLEPH also runs the Law Enforcement and HIV Network (LEAHN), which enrols and supports police in educating and advocating with their colleagues for humane and effective police participation in the HIV response. In relation to drug users and HIV risk, this promotes the human rights of marginalised communities of drug users and their families. LEAHN has produced the Amsterdam Declaration on Police Partnerships for Harm Reduction.
Read the full article using the link below:
Diogenis Cooperation-between-law-enforcement-health-services-in-SEE
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