Doctors Group Launches Campaign Empowering More Healthcare Professionals To Join Drug Decriminalization Movement

A group of doctors who support drug policy reform is launching a new
campaign aimed at equipping physicians and healthcare professionals with
skills to play a greater role in advocating for the decriminalization of
drugs. Organizers say there’s a need for more voices from the medical
community to take part in ongoing discussions around cannabis, psychedelics
and harm reduction issues.

Doctors for Drug Policy Reform (D4DPR) says it’s spent the past year
developing its new advocacy toolkit intended for healthcare professionals
and scientists on “Transitioning from a Criminal Justice Model of Drug Use
to a Health-focused Approach.” It includes guides to help would-be
activists craft opinion pieces and engage with lawmakers and the media in
order to “educate on the failures and lasting harms of the War on Drugs”
and “confidently reframe drug use through a compassionate public health
lens.”

“We’re assembling a core group of *‘on-call’ health professionals* who are
willing to lend their voice when timely advocacy opportunities arise,” says
a recent D4DPR email about the effort, funded through a grant from the Drug
Policy Alliance (DPA). “Now more than ever, we need healthcare
professionals like you to speak up—especially when critical legislation is
being debated.”

Bryon Adinoff, D4DPR’s president, told Marijuana Moment that it’s
“imperative” that healthcare professionals take part.

“We want to health them speak up and learn how to do it in the right way,”
he said.

Among the topics D4DPR is prioritizing with the new initiative are cannabis
regulation, the decriminalization and therapeutic use of psychedelics as
well as overdose prevention centers. By and large, Adinoff said, other
medical professionals and organizations have “not been sufficiently active
in this area.”

“Prohibition in general has really hurt individuals and communities around
the world,” he said. “We’re obligated to speak up.”

In addition to guidance for how to engage in advocacy, the new D4DPR
toolkit includes factsheets, a book of best advocacy practices and ways to
connect with other advocates.

“Your insight and credibility can help shift public opinion, influence
public policy, and reduce the stigma that harms our patients,” the group’s
email to supporters says. “Together, we can create drug policies rooted in
science, dignity, and care.”

Adinoff pointed out that health professionals are in a powerful position to
influence public opinion, noting that “rightly or wrongly, survey after
survey, we show up as the most trusted voice.”

“People believe us,” he said. “Even in this time of anti-science, I still
think we have a better likelihood of being trusted to do the right
thing—and say the right thing—compared to most other professions.”

D4DPR is asking would-be advocates to send an email to learn more about the
new program.

The new advocacy push adds to other efforts the group has taken up in order
to influence public policy. In March, for example, D4DPR published a
position paper calling for states to decriminalize personal use and
possession of an array of psychedelic substances.

“Criminalizing the personal use and possession of psychedelics is a costly
misuse of resources,” it contends. “A cohesive state-level
decriminalization framework would better align with evidence-based drug
policies, ensuring a more just and effective response to substance use.”

The decriminalization white paper came on the heels of another D4DPR
position paper about treatment strategies for opioid use disorder. That
paper, by Hunter Platzman, argues that rather than rely agonist treatments
such as methadone and buprenorphine, policymakers should embrace additional
safer supply interventions, such as prescribing pharmaceutical-grade heroin.

While agonist treatments are legal, well established treatments, that paper
argues, they’re used by fewer than 35 percent of people with opioid use
disorder. Others are either unable to access the therapies or refuse them
altogether. Prescription heroin, Platzman argues in the report,
“demonstrates superior efficacy compared to traditional medications like
methadone” and is far less lethal than highly toxic synthetic opioids, such
as fentanyl.

In April of last year, meanwhile, D4DPR argued in a separate position paper
that hemp-derived cannabinoids should be regulated more like marijuana.

“Our understanding of these compounds is limited,” the paper said of
compounds like delta-8 THC. “Many have never been observed in nature and
their toxicology is unknown.”

“Our stance at D4DPR,” it continued, “is that all intoxicating cannabinoids
should be subject to a regulatory framework to ensure public safety.”

The cannabinoids paper was an attempt to bridge what the group described as
a policy gap between between hemp—legalized federally through the 2018 Farm
Bill—and marijuana, which remains federally illegal.

“The reason we got into this problem is by making this artificial
distinction between two plants, hemp and cannabis, that are identical
plants. One has low amounts of THC and one doesn’t,” Adinoff told Marijuana
Moment at the time. “That’s what got us into this mess.”

D4DPR was long known as Doctors for Cannabis Regulation (DFCR) but rebranded
in 2023 to reflect a growing focus on “a wider range of drug policy issues
beyond cannabis,” including psychedelics and broader harm reduction
matters, leaders said at the time.

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Professionals To Join Drug Decriminalization Movement appeared first on Marijuana
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