‘Using the heart’: law enforcement and people who use drugs in Asia

In countless countries around the world law enforcement officials continue to be at the forefront of the failing war on drugs and can be a major obstacle when it comes to implementing evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, and thanks to the energy of progressive champions within the police and cooperation with civil society, the police are changing from the inside in some places.

Australia, particularly law enforcement in the state of Victoria, is at the forefront of such changes and is stimulating similar developments in other countries, most notably in parts of Asia.

Police officers in Victoria have a good understanding of public health and harm reduction.For example, they do not park patrol cars in front of or in close proximity to a needle and syringe exchange site because this might scare people off from accessing the services.

Police officials together with community advocates from Cambodia (KHANA) Malaysia (Malaysian AIDS Council [MAC]) and Vietnam (Supporting Community Development Initiatives [SCDI]) visited Victoria and New South Wales in Australia last summer to find out more about law enforcement practices with a view to increasing political support of a harm reduction approach among police officials in each country.

The study visits were organised as part of the Asia Action on Harm Reduction program which is coordinated by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance with support from the European Union, and in partnership with the Australian Police Leadership program run by the Law Enforcement and HIV Network (LEAHN) with support from the Australian government.

Following the study visits, country cooperation platforms among police and civil society are in the process of being established in Malaysia and Cambodia. In this article we describe our main learnings from the study visit to Victoria and next steps.

Read the full article.

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