|
The
National African American Drug Policy Coalition
is a unique collaborative initiative to address the problem
of drug abuse in the African American community with each
member organization contributing distinct intellectual
content, practices and procedures for eradicating the
deleterious societal effects of drug abuse. Further, coalition
members, by and through their respective missions, share
a common desire for the implementation of policies and
practices related to drug abuse that:
- Embrace
the protection of the nation's children.
- Reduce
crime and improve public safety and order.
- Enhance
public health.
- Promote
the wise and efficient use of scarce public resources.
Strategic
Objectives
The
NAADPC provides a non-partisan forum for developing
and promoting policies and practices related to substance
abuse in the African American community. The organization
will present an interdisciplinary, scientifically grounded
perspective, and thereby provide a voice now missing
from the highly polarized debate on public health versus
punitive approaches. The NAADPC seeks to harness the energies
and resources of the Coalition member organizations to
educate and thereby improve policy and practice in major
population centers across this country. Such a professional
partnership has great potential to make a difference.
Accordingly, our strategic objectives are:
- To
shift public resources into education, prevention, treatment
and research programs, which has been proven significantly
more effective in reducing drug abuse than the use of
expensive criminal sanctions.
- To
enhance provision of substance abuse treatment upon
request, particularly for those living at or below the
poverty level, including necessary ancillary services
and assistance such as mental health care, housing,
case management, literacy, job readiness and vocational
training, transportation, child care and peer and family
supports.
- To
provide enrichment opportunities and comprehensive health
education to youth as a means of preventing drug use
and other potentially harmful behaviors.
-
To restore equity to the criminal justice system by
addressing the disproportional adverse effect of drug
law enforcement on people of color and the poor.
Theme
for Second Annual Summit on Drug Policy: Drugs,
Poverty, and Ethnicity: Enhancing Treatment, Eliminating
Disparities, and Promoting Justice.
|
