The paper describes the law enforcement and community involvement elements of the strategy, and provides available data on the results achieved so far. Although the current policy has shown positive results for individuals and society as a whole, the system is at risk of losing its balanced approach. The approach of public health-based regulation may have reached its limits and is lose focus in over-medicalization and over-regulation.
The policy may have been under pressure from surrounding countries in the 1980s and 1990s, but nowadays, the biggest threat for turning back the clock is coming from inside the country. There is a growing concern among service providers and drug using communities that the new government will be redrafting the policy agenda away from the primary interest of drug policy: increasing the quality of life of people who use drugs.
January 2011
IDPC Briefing Paper