ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of the misuse and abuse of both illicit and legal substances concerning police work. Tracing changes in social attitudes in Canada over the past 20 years towards addiction and its treatment provides a context for understanding shifts in police attitudes towards substance misuse. In effect, the research undertaken in this book demonstrates that while police remained broadly ‘hawkish’ towards drug enforcement issues in the first decade of the new millennium, both Chief and rank and file police associations began to adopt more progressive policy stances by 2010. These increasingly argued for significant public investments in treatment, education, harm reduction and, more recently, the decriminalization of marijuana and other illicit substances. Understanding this context helps to highlight some of the mismatches between (1) police policy positions and public beliefs and/or rhetoric about the ‘war on drugs’ in Canada; and (2) progressive policy demands by police and other stakeholder groups and the continuing realities of operational policing, where addiction-related issues continue to consume a sizable portion of police resources because of the costs and other issues associated with this ‘wicked problem.’ A brief summary and some final concluding thoughts are then provided.
