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Controversies in Knowledge Translation for Community-Based Drug Treatment: The Need to the End Policies of the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration of Drug Offenders to Achieve Health Equity

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Abstract

The purpose of this article was to discuss significant challenges to the achievement of urban health, specifically acknowledging numerous controversies in knowledge translation for community-based drug treatment that prevent the achievement of health equity. Seven specific controversies are analyzed in this article. The results of the analysis are recommendations for moving toward the resolution of each controversy. Among the most important recommendations is a call to end the policies of the war on drugs and mass incarceration of drug offenders—as policies reflecting how politics and the misuse of power may derail knowledge translation. The article provides justification for evidence-based policy that supports community-based drug treatment as a public health approach consistent with the goals of health equity, ethical practice, and effective knowledge translation.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) under grant no. 101693, entitled “Power, Politics, and the Use of Health Equity Research.”

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  1. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Barbara C. Wallace

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  1. Barbara C. Wallace
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Correspondence to Barbara C. Wallace.

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Wallace, B.C. Controversies in Knowledge Translation for Community-Based Drug Treatment: The Need to the End Policies of the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration of Drug Offenders to Achieve Health Equity. J Urban Health 89, 894–904 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-012-9697-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-012-9697-3

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