The activities of authorised agencies such as police, customs, border services, and investigative bodies to enforce drug control laws and address criminal activities related to the production, trafficking, and distribution of illicit substances. These activities may include investigations, intelligence gathering, interdiction, and collaboration with national and international partners to disrupt organised crime networks. Law enforcement plays an important role in protecting public safety and maintaining the rule of law, and is most effective when coordinated with broader public health, prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts as part of a balanced and comprehensive response to substance use.
Law Enforcement
How to Tackle America’s Opioid Crisis?
Much the result of a poor understanding of how to treat chronic pain, the United States has in recent years been rocked by an unprecedented drug crisis: The opioid epidemic. Opioids include drugs derived from opium, such as heroin, as well...
Fentanyl Isn’t Just Deadly for Drug Users: Police Are Getting Sickened
This article describes how fentanyl is affecting police officers and medical examiners across the US as they try to investigate it. Read more...
N.E. Fentanyl Deaths 'Like No Other Epidemic' - Boston Globe
Mexican cartels are delivering vast quantities of the inexpensive and powerful synthetic drug fentanyl to New England, causing the highest rate of fentanyl-related deaths in the nation while creating a plague that the area’s top drug...
Alcohol Treatment Matrix Row 5: Safeguarding the Community
Time to consolidate the lessons of the course’s last five instalments about treatment intended to safeguard the community, the final row of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. A common theme is the contradiction between treatment centred on the...
ISSUP at the 22nd Annual National Institute on Drug Abuse International Forum
The 22nd Annual National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) International Forum was held in Montreal, Canada from June 16th – 19th, 2017.
Long Lasting Effects of Chronic Heavy Cannabis Abuse
Abstract Background and Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent of short-term memory impairment and schizophrenia-like symptoms in heavy and systematic cannabis users and the association between the severity of abuse...
Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management
Often called the Orange Book, this is guidance for clinicians treating people with drug problems. This 2017 version offers new guidelines on: prison-based treatment new psychoactive substances and club drugs mental health co-morbidity...
SAMHSA Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit
This toolkit offers strategies to health care providers, communities, and local governments for developing practices and policies to help prevent opioid-related overdoses and deaths. Access reports for community members, prescribers...
Effectiveness Bank Matrix Bite: Treatment Systems to Reduce Alcohol-Related Crime and Safeguard the Community
Final cell of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. The theme is set by an Australian review which argues that despite radically different starting points, criminal justice and treatment systems must collaborate to deliver treatment. We invite you...
Field Guide to Drug Demand Reduction Program Development, 2nd ed.
The Field Guide to Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Development is an annual publication by the U.S. Department of State primarily for its Embassy personnel abroad to guide in the development of substance use prevention and treatment programming...