Police reach out to community partners with drug strategy

The Greater Sudbury Police Services board approved a new community drug strategy Wednesday that is expected to increase collaboration between police and various community groups and health care providers.

Deputy Chief Al Lekun presented the strategy's executive summary to the board, and said a more in-depth document should be released later in the month.

“It's really about partners and agencies working together, so you end up with a multi-dimentional, multi-sector strategy that is more effective at dealing with the harms associated with substance abuse,” Lekun said.

The police service is working with the Sudbury and District Health Unit, the North East Local Health Integration Network, the Canadian Mental Health Association and various non-profit groups, such as the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth and Monarch Recovery Services to implement a drug strategy that incorporates harm reduction and health promotion to the traditional enforcement role police play.

The strategy includes nine key priorities, which range from reducing the harms associated with substance abuse, to ensuring people have access to safe, appropriate and affordable housing.

Lekun said the new strategy was born out of partnerships Sudbury police have maintained with various organizations over the years.

To curb oxycodone robberies at pharmacies, for example, police worked with local pharmacies and the health unit to address the larger issue of addiction and abuse with the prescription drug.

“We work with all these partners on specific initiatives,” Lekun said.
The community drug strategy combines those partnerships and makes overall community health the end goal.

Brenda Stankiewicz, a public health nurse with the health unit, said discussions around the community drug strategy first started in 2010.

While many communities in the province have had difficulty bringing police on board with harm reduction strategies, Stankiewicz said it wasn't an issue in Sudbury.

“We're so lucky to be working with Greater Sudbury Police Services,” she said.
Stankiewicz said harm reduction strategies in various jurisdictions have proven effective at treating addicts and getting them much-needed medical attention.

In Portugal, where drug possession for personal use was decriminalized in 2001, newly diagnosed HIV rates among drug users decreased dramatically over a 10-year period.

“They've shown that as you are more welcoming to people and have services available, (addicts) make contact with service providers, and those contacts with service providers will put them in a position where they can receive help when they're ready to receive it,” Stankiewicz said.

While the police services board gave the strategy its stamp of approval, it still needs to be presented to the health unit's board and city council.