TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring improvement in knowledge of drug policy reforms following a police education program in Tijuana, Mexico
AU - Arredondo, J.
AU - Strathdee, S. A.
AU - Cepeda, J.
AU - Abramovitz, D.
AU - Artamonova, I.
AU - Clairgue, E.
AU - Bustamante, E.
AU - Mittal, M. L.
AU - Rocha, T.
AU - Bañuelos, A.
AU - Olivarria, H. O.
AU - Morales, M.
AU - Rangel, G.
AU - Magis, C.
AU - Beletsky, L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The support for the development and piloting of the PEP was provided through grants from the Open Society Foundations Latin America Program grants OR2013-11352 and OR2014-18327 and UCSD Center for AIDS Research International Pilot Grant NIAID 5P30AI036214, by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under award number D43TW008633 and R25TW009343, and by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA039073, R37DA019829 and T32DA023356). Additional support for JA was granted by the CONACYT-UC MEXUS Doctoral scholarship and the Center for US-Mexican Studies at UCSD. The funders had no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, and writing of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from our funders and the Tijuana Mayor’s Office, the Ministry of Public Safety, and the Tijuana Police Academy. Special thanks to Victor Alaníz, the Comandante Salvador Mendoza, and the trainers from the Police Academy. We would also like to thank the field staff and all of the participants in Tijuana for making this research possible. Finally, a special thanks to Jahadak for lending his story to educate police officers.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s).
PY - 2017/11/8
Y1 - 2017/11/8
N2 - Background: Mexico's 2009 "narcomenudeo reform" decriminalized small amounts of drugs, shifting some drug law enforcement to the states and mandating drug treatment diversion instead of incarceration. Data from Tijuana suggested limited implementation of this harm reduction-oriented policy. We studied whether a police education program (PEP) improved officers' drug and syringe policy knowledge, and aimed to identify participant characteristics associated with improvement of drug policy knowledge. Methods: Pre- and post-training surveys were self-administered by municipal police officers to measure legal knowledge. Training impact was assessed through matched paired nominal data using McNemar's tests. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of improved legal knowledge, as measured by officers' ability to identify conceptual legal provisions related to syringe possession and thresholds of drugs covered under the reform. Results: Of 1750 respondents comparing pre- versus post training, officers reported significant improvement (p < 0.001) in their technical understanding of syringe possession (56 to 91%) and drug amounts decriminalized, including marijuana (9 to 52%), heroin (8 to 71%), and methamphetamine (7 to 70%). The training was associated with even greater success in improving conceptual legal knowledge for syringe possession (67 to 96%) (p < 0.001), marijuana (16 to 91%), heroin (11 to 91%), and methamphetamine (11 to 89%). In multivariable modeling, those with at least a high school education were more likely to exhibit improvement of conceptual legal knowledge of syringe possession (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-3.2) and decriminalization for heroin (aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3-4.3), methamphetamine (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.4-3.2), and marijuana (aOR 2.5, 95% CI 1.6-4). Conclusions: Drug policy reform is often necessary, but not sufficient to achieve public health goals because of gaps in translating formal laws to policing practice. To close such gaps, PEP initiatives bundling occupational safety information with relevant legal content demonstrate clear promise. Our findings underscore additional efforts needed to raise technical knowledge of the law among personnel tasked with its enforcement. Police professionalization, including minimum educational standards, appear critical for aligning policing with harm reduction goals.
AB - Background: Mexico's 2009 "narcomenudeo reform" decriminalized small amounts of drugs, shifting some drug law enforcement to the states and mandating drug treatment diversion instead of incarceration. Data from Tijuana suggested limited implementation of this harm reduction-oriented policy. We studied whether a police education program (PEP) improved officers' drug and syringe policy knowledge, and aimed to identify participant characteristics associated with improvement of drug policy knowledge. Methods: Pre- and post-training surveys were self-administered by municipal police officers to measure legal knowledge. Training impact was assessed through matched paired nominal data using McNemar's tests. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of improved legal knowledge, as measured by officers' ability to identify conceptual legal provisions related to syringe possession and thresholds of drugs covered under the reform. Results: Of 1750 respondents comparing pre- versus post training, officers reported significant improvement (p < 0.001) in their technical understanding of syringe possession (56 to 91%) and drug amounts decriminalized, including marijuana (9 to 52%), heroin (8 to 71%), and methamphetamine (7 to 70%). The training was associated with even greater success in improving conceptual legal knowledge for syringe possession (67 to 96%) (p < 0.001), marijuana (16 to 91%), heroin (11 to 91%), and methamphetamine (11 to 89%). In multivariable modeling, those with at least a high school education were more likely to exhibit improvement of conceptual legal knowledge of syringe possession (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-3.2) and decriminalization for heroin (aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3-4.3), methamphetamine (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 1.4-3.2), and marijuana (aOR 2.5, 95% CI 1.6-4). Conclusions: Drug policy reform is often necessary, but not sufficient to achieve public health goals because of gaps in translating formal laws to policing practice. To close such gaps, PEP initiatives bundling occupational safety information with relevant legal content demonstrate clear promise. Our findings underscore additional efforts needed to raise technical knowledge of the law among personnel tasked with its enforcement. Police professionalization, including minimum educational standards, appear critical for aligning policing with harm reduction goals.
KW - Decriminalization
KW - Drug policy
KW - Harm reduction
KW - Mexico
KW - Narcomenudeo
KW - Police
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U2 - 10.1186/s12954-017-0198-2
DO - 10.1186/s12954-017-0198-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 29117858
AN - SCOPUS:85033410951
VL - 14
JO - Harm Reduction Journal
JF - Harm Reduction Journal
SN - 1477-7517
IS - 1
M1 - 72
ER -