Drug Use and Drug Policy in a Prohibition Regime

Science, 1989

As frustrations with the drug problem and current drug policies rise daily, growing numbers of political leaders, law enforcement officials, drug abuse experts, and common citizens are insisting that a radical alternative to current policies be fairly considered: the controlled legalization (or decriminalization) of drugs.' Just as "Repeal Prohibition" became a catchphrase that swept together the diverse objections to Prohibition, so "Legalize (or Decriminalize) Drugs" has become a catchphrase that means many things to many people. The policy analyst views legalization as a model for critically examining the costs and benefits of drug prohibition policies. Libertarians, both civil and economic, view it as a policy alternative that eliminates criminal sanctions on the use and sale of drugs that are costly in terms of both individual liberty and economic freedom. Others see it simply as a means to "take the crime out of the drug business." In its broadest sense, however, legalization incorporates the many arguments and growing sentiment for de-emphasizing our traditional reliance on criminal justice resources to deal with drug abuse and for emphasizing instead drug abuse prevention, treatment, and education, as well as noncriminal restrictions on the availability and use of psychoactive substances and positive inducements to abstain from drug abuse. There is no one legalization option. At one extreme, some libertarians advocate the removal of all criminal sanctions and t This article, the Comments that follow and a portion of Nadelmann's Response to these Comments, were originally published in

Addiction, 2000

Addiction, 1990

To foster comparison of policy interventions across the various categories of licit and illicit drugs, we develop a typology of policies intended to address drug abuse problems. The principal dimensions of the typology are policy type and intervention channel. While the typology has important limitations, as a mechanism to organize information and stimulate thought it holds the potential to improve understanding of commonalities and distinctions among policies applying to widely discrepant drug problems, both within and across cultures. As such, it could contribute to the development of more effective approaches to grappling with a diverse set of drug policy issues.

International Social Science Journal, 2001

Drug and Alcohol Review, 1991

The use of psychoactive drugs is regarded by many as a basic human drive, but it is one that induces a variety of societal responses to curb it. The present review examines two aspects of government policy on drugs: first, the influence of social movements on drug policy; and secondly, the choices for constraining drug use as an alternative to total prohibition. Addiction is essentially a repeated behaviour which is viewed as excessive or harmful. As such, it has many similarities with a wide range of human behaviours. With the concept of addiction becoming progressively banalized, there is the possibility of a more natural debate about decriminalization and legalization of drugs in terms of a balance between harm and benefits. The current public debate may create a climate for serious political consideration of the strategies. [Room R. Drug policy reform in historical perspective: movements and mechanisms. Drug Alcohol Rev x99x ~ io: [37][38][39][40][41][42][43]

Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2011

For decades, the debate over the merits of ending drug prohibition has carried on with little consequence. The recent near success of a cannabis legalization initiative in California suggests that citizens and politicians alike are more receptive to calls for change. We review basic research on deterrence and prices as well as emerging evidence on the potential empirical consequences of various alternatives to full prohibition, including depenalization, tolerated home cultivation, prescription regimes for cannabis and heroin, and retail sales of cannabis in Dutch coffee shops. The results are encouraging for advocates of these specific reforms, but the cases are inadequate for addressing the potentially more dramatic effects of full-scale commercial markets. The fundamental dilemma is that full legalization will probably reduce average harm per use but increase total consumption; the net effect of these two changes is difficult to project.

Research into the relationship between drug use and crime has generated a substantial body of literature. While these efforts have not established a causal link between the two behaviors, they do confirm a high correlation between drug use and many types of criminal behavior in a) the general population, b) populations of drug users, and c) arrested populations. The literature also shows that the drugs-crime relationship occurs within the framework of societal policies toward drug use that have ranged from regulated commercial approaches to strict prohibition. There is considerable debate about the strength and continuity of the relationship between drug use and crime. It is suggested that research focusing on the relationship would benefit from the application of theoretical models such as Ecosystems Theory and/or Social Capital. These models may help sort out the nature and complexity of the relationship as well as suggest more appropriate interventions. A review of programmatic approaches that have been used to break the drugs-crime relationship is presented that suggests the most successful approaches include a comprehensive range of services from assessment, implementation of services to meet assessed needs, and aftercare within the framework of graduated sanctions and comprehensive case management. In order to further examine the drugscrime relationship, it is suggested that future research should use an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate the differential impact of state policies as well as and examine the effectiveness of specific treatment program elements. Future Directions in Drugs and Crime 2 The Drugs-Crime Wars: Past, Present and Future Directions in Theory, Policy and Program Interventions

The use of drugs across the world is regulated at varying degrees, with some of them being criminalised and prohibited. Alongside punitive measures against users and suppliers, there have also been developed treatment programs with the aim of reducing drug-related harms. Thus, the regulatory sphere has been shaped by two philosophies: law enforcement and harm reduction policing. This paper will initially outline the nature of two different strategies and subsequently argue why the policing should adopt harm reduction principles to reach its goals.