In April 2013, The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) published Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy. Co-authored by Tracy Pugh, Jules Netherland, Ruth Finkelstein, Kassandra Frederique, Simone Marie-Meeks, and gabriel sayegh.
DPA and NYAM are organizations with very different missions and histories but a shared understanding that New York’s current policy approach to drugs is failing. We joined together to examine New York’s current drug policies and to reimagine how those policies could realize better health and public safety outcomes, through a more coordinated, public health-oriented approach based on the four pillars model of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and public safety. Believing that good public policies should be developed in collaboration with those directly affected by them, we spent over a year holding community consultations across the state asking New York residents how drug use and drug policies affected them and their neighborhoods and what should be done to move the state forward. We also met with experts, policymakers, and service providers and conducted an extensive review of the literature. This Blueprint is the result of these research activities.
After publication, the Blueprint was the subject an editorial in The New York Times. A PDF of the editorial can be downloaded here.
Download the Executive Summary. The full report can be found below.
