June 21, 2011 [Red Deer, Canada] – On Monday, June 13, 2011, Red Deer City Council voted in favour of signing the Vienna Declaration, a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. This makes Red Deer the fourth city in Canada to sign the declaration behind Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.
More than 16,500 people have signed the declaration since its launch on June 27, 2010, including six Nobel Laureates, thousands of scientific experts, law enforcement leaders, members of the judiciary and a diverse range of academic, faith-based, and civil society organizations around the world.
City Council also unanimously voted in favour of developing a Red Deer specific drug strategy. In order to develop a Red Deer specific drug strategy, key stakeholders, such as Red Deer’s Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, will be brought together.
The Crime Prevention and Policing Study consultants have also been requested to review a four pillars approach for potential relevance and inclusion in the study and to make recommendations. The four pillars include prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement.
