The North Shore substance abuse task force: an assessment of drug policy making and practice through partnerships

Cities around the world increasingly need to address problems associated with substance abuse. Homelessness, urban decay and neighbourhood unrest are often a result of the critical impacts that substance abuse can have on cities. How cities respond, together with non profit partners and other levels of government is the focus of this research paper. Specifically, the drug policy making practices of the North Shore in British Columbia will be explored. An analysis of the secondary data related to the North Shore Substance Abuse Task Force as well as interviews with key members of the task force reveals how the North Shore went about developing a partnership framework to address substance abuse. This paper concludes that, while looking to other municipalities to model drug policy making is interesting and working on a partnership based approach is beneficial, the importance of embedding an implementation plan directly in the policy cannot be overlooked.