EDPI Partner from Denmark
Street Lawyer/Gadejuristen is a fascinating example of the way legal assistance can be implemented among street based drug users. The organization is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and provides legal aid to the most disadvantaged drug users in the city.
By printing pocket sized cards for drug users with information about human rights, and local drug legislation, the project aims to inform drug users about the best ways to challenge illegal police activity, or ensuring they gain access to all services that should be provided within the law. Messages on the cards include: Can a police officer search for drugs in my vagina or rectum? Are the police allowed to strip search me in the streets? Am I entitled to make a phone call if I am taken into custody?
Accompanied by the street lawyers, drug users are now able to finally receive their social benefits and medical treatment at hospitals, and not be just turned away as they were in the past.
Web: www.gadejuristen.dk
Public poll results on attitudes to drug policy