Drug treatment city partnership program will allow 44 municipalities to exchange best practice
The Drug Treatment City Partnership, funded by the European Commission and executed by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission CICAD/OAS, kicked off its activities with an inter-regional forum held in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, on April 2-5. The three-year program aims to link up local governments from the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean to exchange and explore innovative approaches to dealing with drug abuse treatmetn and rehabilitation as well as an alternative to incaceration for drug dependent persons who commit certain types of non-violent crimes. With more than 286 participants, the meeting brought together city mayors, chief medical officers and other local authorities from 44 municipalities, as well as advocates for innovative approaches to dealing with drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation. The next stage of the program will focus on three key areas:
- Improving pubic drug treatment policies and inter-agency cooperation in EU and LAC cities (identification of successful models, case studies, lessons learned);
- Improving drug treatment services at the municipal level (data collection, design and development of a local rapid assessment, needs assessment, planning, capacity building, and treatment system evaluation) in collaboration with other regional and national agents, as well as with the health systems; and
- Developing treatment alternatives to incarceration for drug-dependent offenders under court supervision (drug courts, community service orders, therapeutic justice, among others).
The EU-LAC project launched its web portal, which will serve as the information clearinghouse for
The EU-LAC partnership will culminate in a wrap-up forum in which findings will be presented, to take place in Lugo, Spain in May 2010.