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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for drug prohibition
12 results foundAuthor: Werb, Dan Title: Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Review Summary: This systematic review evaluated all available English language peer-reviewed research on the impact of law enforcement on drug market violence. The available scientific evidence suggests that increasing the intensity of law enforcement interventions to disrupt drug markets is unlikely to reduce drug gang violence. Instead, the evidence suggests that drug-related violence and high homicide rates are likely a natural consequence of drug prohibition and that increasingly sophisticated and well-resourced methods of disrupting drug distribution networks may unintentionally increase violence. From an evidence-based public policy perspective, gun violence and the enrichment of organized crime networks appear to be natural consequences of drug prohibition. In this context, and since drug prohibition has not achieved its stated goal of reducing drug supply, alternative models for drug control may need to be considered if drug supply and drug-related violence are to be meaningfully reduced. Details: Vancouver, BC: International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, 2010. 26p. Source: Year: 2010 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 118299 Keywords: Drug EnforcementDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionDrug Related ViolenceGangs |
Author: Miron, Jeffrey A. Title: The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition Summary: "Government prohibition of drugs is the subject of ongoing debate. One issue in this debate is the effect of prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs and prevents taxation of drug production and sale. This report examines the budgetary implications of legalizing drugs. The report estimates that legalizing drugs would save roughly $48.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $33.1 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government. Approximately $13.7 billion of the savings would results from legalization of marijuana, $22.3 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $12.8 from legalization of other drugs. The report also estimates that drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $34.3 billion annually, assuming legal drugs are taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $6.4 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana, $23.9 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $4.0 billion from legalization of other drugs. State-by-state breakdowns provide a rough indication of legalization’s impacts on state budgets, but these estimates are less reliable than those for the overall economy. Whether drug legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts discussed here. Rational debate about drug policy should nevertheless consider these budgetary effects. The estimates provided here are not definitive estimates of the budgetary implications of a legalized regime for currently illegal drugs. The analysis employs assumptions that plausibly err on the conservative side, but substantial uncertainty remains about the magnitude of the budgetary impacts." Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Department of Economics, 2010. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 21, 2010 at: http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/miron/files/budget%202010%20Final.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/miron/files/budget%202010%20Final.pdf Shelf Number: 118415 Keywords: Drug LegalizationDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionDrugs |
Author: Wood, Evan Title: Tools for Debate: US Federal Government Data on Cannabis Prohibition Summary: Several initiatives in the state of California, including Bill 2254 and the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis proposition, have fuelled the international discussion about the known impacts of cannabis prohibition and the potential impacts of a regulated (i.e., legal) market. Surprisingly, to date, an impact assessment of cannabis prohibition based on data derived through US federal government surveillance systems has been largely absent from this debate. Drawing upon cannabis surveillance systems funded by the US government, this report summarizes information about the impacts of US cannabis prohibition on cannabis seizures and arrests. The report also tests the assumption that increased funding for the enforcement of cannabis prohibition and subsequent increased seizures and arrests reduce cannabis-related harms, by evaluating US federally funded surveillance systems examining cannabis potency, price, availability and rates of use. Details: Vancouver, Canada: International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, 2010. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 29, 2010 at: http://www.icsdp.org/docs/ICSDP-2.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.icsdp.org/docs/ICSDP-2.pdf Shelf Number: 120117 Keywords: CannabisDrug ControlDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionMarijuana |
Author: Jiggens, John Lawrence Title: Marijuana Australiana : Cannabis Use, Popular Culture and the Americanisation of Drugs Policy in Australia, 1938-1988 Summary: The word 'marijuana' was introduced to Australia by the US Bureau of Narcotics via the Diggers newspaper, Smith's Weekly, in 1938. Marijuana was said to be 'a new drug that maddens victims' and it was sensationally described as an 'evil sex drug'. The resulting tabloid furore saw the plant cannabis sativa banned in Australia, even though cannabis had been a well-known and widely used drug in Australia for many decades. In 1964, a massive infestation of wild cannabis was found growing along a stretch of the Hunter River between Singleton and Maitland in New South Wales. The explosion in Australian marijuana use began there. It was fuelled after 1967 by US soldiers on rest and recreation leave from Vietnam. It was the Baby-Boomer young who were turning on. Pot smoking was overwhelmingly associated with the generation born in the decade after the Second World War. As the conflict over the Vietnam War raged in Australia, it provoked intense generational conflict between the Baby-Boomers and older generations. Just as in the US, pot was adopted by Australian Baby-Boomers as their symbol; and, as in the US, the attack on pot users served as code for an attack on the young, the Left, and the alternative. In 1976, the 'War on Drugs' began in earnest in Australia with paramilitary attacks on the hippie colonies at Cedar Bay in Queensland and Tuntable Falls in New South Wales. It was a time of increasing US style prohibition characterised by 'tough-on-drugs' right-wing rhetoric, police crackdowns, numerous murders, and a marijuana drought followed quickly by a heroin plague; in short by a massive worsening of 'the drug problem'. During this decade, organised crime moved into the pot scene and the price of pot skyrocketed, reaching $450 an ounce in 1988. Thanks to the Americanisation of drugs policy, the black market made 'a killing'. In Marijuana Australiana I argue that the 'War on Drugs' developed -- not for health reasons -- but for reasons of social control; as a domestic counter-revolution against the Whitlamite, Baby-Boomer generation by older Nixonite Drug War warriors like Queensland Premier, Bjelke-Petersen. It was a misuse of drugs policy which greatly worsened drug problems, bringing with it American-style organised crime. As the subtitle suggests, Marijuana Australiana relies significantly on 'alternative' sources, and I trawl the waters of popular culture, looking for songs, posters, comics and underground magazines to produce an 'underground' history of cannabis in Australia. This 'pop' approach is balanced with a hard-edged, quantitative analysis of the size of the marijuana market, the movement of price, and the seizure figures in the section called 'History By Numbers'. As Alfred McCoy notes, we need to understand drugs as commodities. It is only through a detailed understanding of the drug trade that the deeper secrets of this underground world can be revealed. In this section, I present an economic history of the cannabis market and formulate three laws of the market. Details: Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology, Centre for Social Change Research, 2004. 294p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed April 30, 2012 at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15949/ Year: 2004 Country: Australia URL: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15949/ Shelf Number: 125108 Keywords: CannabisDrug Abuse and CrimeDrug ControlDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionMarijuana (Australia)Organized Crime |
Author: Larkin, Jim R. Title: An Empirical Analysis of Alcohol Use, Drug Prohibition Enforcement and Major Crime in the USA Using State Level Aata for the 1990s Summary: This study assesses the aggregate association in the USA (1988-2005) between alcohol and other drug consumption, drug prohibition enforcement and crimes against persons and property while controlling for potential confounders. Its main aim is to contribute to existing econometric evidence about the effectiveness of drug law enforcement as a tool for reducing other types of crime. A secondary aim is to address the question of whether increases in cannabinoid use and decreases in alcohol contributed to the enigmatic 1990s US nationwide crime decline. Details: Adelaide: University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2008. 73p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2012 at: http://economics.adelaide.edu.au/events/archive/2008/An-Empirical-Analysis-of-Alcohol-Use-Drug-Prohibition-Enforcement-and-Major-Crime-in-the-USA-using-state-level-data-for-the-1990s.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://economics.adelaide.edu.au/events/archive/2008/An-Empirical-Analysis-of-Alcohol-Use-Drug-Prohibition-Enforcement-and-Major-Crime-in-the-USA-using-state-level-data-for-the-1990s.pdf Shelf Number: 125175 Keywords: Albohol Abuse ( U.S.)Alcohol ProhibitionAlcohol Related Crime, DisorderDrug Abuse and CrimeDrug Prohibition |
Author: Beckett, Katherine Title: The Consequences and Costs of Marijuana Prohibition Summary: This report draws on a wide range of data sources to assess the consequences and costs of enforcing criminal laws that prohibit the use of marijuana. Despite widespread and longstanding disagreement about the continuation of marijuana prohibition, the number and rate of marijuana arrests have increased significantly in the United States since the early 1990s. These arrests are not evenly distributed across the population, but are disproportionately imposed on African Americans. Our findings regarding the costs and consequences of marijuana prohibition, as well as state and local efforts to relax it. Details: Seattle, WA: Law, Societies and Justice Program, University of Washington, 2008. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 9, 2012 at: http://www.aclu-wa.org/library_files/BeckettandHerbert.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclu-wa.org/library_files/BeckettandHerbert.pdf Shelf Number: 113851 Keywords: Drug EnforcementDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionMarijuana (Washington State) |
Author: Douglas, Bob Title: Alternatives to Prohibition. Illicit Drugs: How We Can Stop Killing and Criminalising Young Australians. Report of the second Australia21 Roundtable on Illicit Drugs held at The University of Melbourne on 6 July 2012 Summary: Australia’s illicit drug markets continue to thrive. Young people are being encouraged to experiment because huge profits are made from drug markets controlled by powerful criminal networks. Australia’s reported rates of cannabis and ecstasy (MDMA) use are among the highest in the world. Every year, new drug types appear in Australia. But the criminal justice system is unable to stamp out psychoactive drug use. People accused of drug related crimes fill our courts and those convicted fill our prisons. The collateral damage from efforts to suppress the drug trade continues to disrupt civil society and destroy young lives. About 400 Australians die each year through heroin overdose alone. By international standards our rates of drug-related deaths are extremely high. The July 2012 Roundtable included a group of 22 high level experts and young people, who examined changes in policy in four European countries and considered future options for Australia. These discussions identified a range of ways in which Australian policy could be reset. Some are modest and incremental reforms, while others are more ambitious and will require wide community consideration. Details: Weston, ACT, AUS: Australian21 Limited, 2012. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2012 at: http://www.australia21.org.au/publications/press_releases/A21_Alternatives_to_Prohibition_SEP_12.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Australia URL: http://www.australia21.org.au/publications/press_releases/A21_Alternatives_to_Prohibition_SEP_12.pdf Shelf Number: 126296 Keywords: Drug AbuseDrug OffendersDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionIllicit Drugs (Australia) |
Author: Douglas, Bob Title: The Prohibition of Illicit Drugs is Killing and Criminalilsing Our Children and We Are All Letting It Happen. Report of a high level roundtable held at the University of Sydney on Tuesday 31st January 2012 on the topic “What are the likely cost Summary: In response to the Global Commission report, Australia21, in January 2012, convened a meeting of 24 former senior Australian politicians and experts on drug policy, to explore the principles and recommendations that were enunciated by the Global Commission. The group also included two young student leaders, a former senior prosecutor, a former head of the Australian Federal Police, representatives of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform and a leading businessman. The Australian group agreed with the Global Commission that the international and Australian prohibition of the use of certain “illicit” drugs has failed comprehensively. By making the supply and use of certain drugs criminal acts, governments everywhere have driven their production and consumption underground and have fostered the development of a criminal industry that is corrupting civil society and governments and killing our children. By defining the personal use and possession of certain psychoactive drugs as criminal acts, governments have also avoided any responsibility to regulate and control the quality of substances that are in widespread use. Some of these illicit drugs have demonstrable health benefits. Many are highly addictive and harmful when used repeatedly. In that respect they are comparable to alcohol and nicotine, which are legal in Australia and, as a result, are under society’s control for quality, distribution, marketing and taxation. Australia has made great progress in recent decades reducing the harm from tobacco – a drug which kills half the people who use it. Details: Weston, ACT, AUS: Australia21, 2012. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2012 at: http://www.australia21.org.au/publications/press_releases/Australia21_Illicit_Drug_Policy_Report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Australia URL: http://www.australia21.org.au/publications/press_releases/Australia21_Illicit_Drug_Policy_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 126297 Keywords: Drug AbuseDrug OffendersDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionIllicit Drugs (Australia) |
Author: Bewley-Taylor, Dave Title: The Rise and Decline of Cannabis Prohibition: The History of Cannabis in the UN Drug Control System and Options for Reform Summary: The cannabis plant has been used for spiritual, medicinal and recreational purposes since the early days of civilization. In this report the Transnational Institute and the Global Drug Policy Observatory describe in detail the history of international control and how cannabis was included in the current UN drug control system. Cannabis was condemned by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as a psychoactive drug with "particularly dangerous properties" and hardly any therapeutic value. Ever since, an increasing number of countries have shown discomfort with the treaty regime's strictures through soft defections, stretching its legal flexibility to sometimes questionable limits. Today's political reality of regulated cannabis markets in Uruguay, Washington and Colorado operating at odds with the UN conventions puts the discussion about options for reform of the global drug control regime on the table. Now that the cracks in the Vienna consensus have reached the point of treaty breach, this discussion is no longer a reformist fantasy. Easy options, however, do not exist; they all entail procedural complications and political obstacles. A coordinated initiative by a group of like-minded countries agreeing to assess possible routes and deciding on a road map for the future seems the most likely scenario for moving forward. There are good reasons to question the treaty-imposed prohibition model for cannabis control. Not only is the original inclusion of cannabis within the current framework the result of dubious procedures, but the understanding of the drug itself, the dynamics of illicit markets, and the unintended consequences of repressive drug control strategies has increased enormously. The prohibitive model has failed to have any sustained impact in reducing the market, while imposing heavy burdens upon criminal justice systems; producing profoundly negative social and public health impacts; and creating criminal markets supporting organised crime, violence and corruption. After long accommodating various forms of deviance from its prohibitive ethos, like turning a blind eye to illicit cannabis markets, decriminalisation of possession for personal use, coffeeshops, cannabis social clubs and generous medical marijuana schemes, the regime has now reached a moment of truth. The current policy trend towards legal regulation of the cannabis market as a more promising model for protecting people's health and safety has changed the drug policy landscape and the terms of the debate. The question facing the international community today is no longer whether or not there is a need to reassess and modernize the UN drug control system, but rather when and how to do it. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute; Swansea, UK: Research Institute for Arts and Humanities, Swansea University, 2014. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2014 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/rise_and_decline_web.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/rise_and_decline_web.pdf Shelf Number: 131900 Keywords: CannabisDecriminalizationDrug ControlDrug EnforcementDrug PolicyDrug ProhibitionMarijuana |
Author: Clark, Kyleigh M. Title: When Prohibition and Violence Collide: The Case of Mexico Summary: Some theorists have found a positive correlation between increased drug prohibition enforcement and a rise in violence. These studies focus on the United States and Colombia, arguing that prohibition amplifies violence, rather than decreasing it. Much like the United States and Colombia earlier in their histories, Mexico has recently experienced an escalation in violence. Since beginning a democratic transition in 2000, the Mexican government has intensified a war on drugs by strengthening the rule of law, battling corruption, and cooperating with the United States' drug war. This study, using a congruence method with process-tracing, will analyze the Mexican case in depth, with the goal of determining whether increased drug prohibition enforcement has escalated drug-related violence in Mexico, and what effect the violence has on the legitimacy of democracy itself in Mexico Details: Dayton, OH: Wright State University, 2011. 146p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 17, 2016 at: http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2209&context=etd_all Year: 2011 Country: Mexico URL: http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2209&context=etd_all Shelf Number: 146034 Keywords: Drug Control PolicyDrug EnforcementDrug ProhibitionDrug-Related ViolenceWar on Drugs |
Author: Corda, Alejandro Title: Cannabis in Latin America and the Caribbean: From punishment to regulation Summary: Cannabis (or marihuana) is one of the most widely consumed psychoactive substances in the world. According to the United Nations World Drug Report, 183 million people, or 3.8% of the world's population, used cannabis in 2014. Its cultivation was also reported by 129 countries. Cannabis is subject to the United Nations System for International Control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (hereafter "drugs") and is the most widely consumed of all the drugs. According to that control system, cannabis is among the substances with the strictest legal status; they are the most prohibited, supposedly because of the harm they cause and their lack of medical usefulness. Nevertheless, its medicinal, spiritual and social use has been recorded in different places and times in human history, without serious associated consequences. Its prohibition began in the early 20th century, even though there were - and are - no records of overdose deaths, and public health risks are relatively low, even compared to other psychoactive substances with less strict legal status, such as alcohol and tobacco. Unlike other substances subject to control, which are produced in only certain regions of the world, cannabis is cultivated, produced and consumed worldwide. Some countries, however, have historically been regional producers or have a longer history or closer ties with the plant. On the American continent, this is true of Mexico in North America, Jamaica in the Caribbean, and Paraguay and Colombia in South America. Proposals for regulation of the cannabis market have been on the table for a number of years. The movement of users and growers has placed the issue on the social, political and media agenda, and there have been some reforms. One example is Uruguay, where the decision was made to regulate the market for cannabis for any kind of use. In other countries, however, reforms have been limited to regulating systems of access to cannabis for medicinal or therapeutic use. Although the international drug control system considers the possibility of "medical and scientific" use of cannabis, prejudices about the substance have hampered the development of regulations and acceptance by Western medicine. In fact, many "reforms" related to medicinal cannabis required only modification of low-level regulations. This means that a proposal being presented as novel is actually something that should always have existed. Key points The prohibitionist approach imposed on cannabis by the international drug control system still persists in nearly all of the Latin American and Caribbean countries examined. In almost all of them, possession falls under criminal law. Some countries' legislation establishes thresholds below which cannabis possession should not be considered a crime. Only in Uruguay does the law include regulation of the entire chain. Although cannabis organizations and other groups have managed to place the issue on the agenda, in most countries reforms are still pending or have been inadequate. The inclusion of relatives and users of cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic purposes has helped give impetus to the movement and to raise awareness among both political stakeholders and the public. Many of the reforms under way do not recognize the need to regulate the recreational and cultural use of cannabis and run the risk of perpetuating the current consequences, with the persistent impact on health, security, institutionality and human rights that the prohibition of cannabis and the lack of state regulation allow and encourage. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean should prepare for future reform scenarios, instead of considering temporary measures that will perpetuate the same harmful consequences. Limiting reform solely to medicinal cannabis is only a partial, inadequate and temporary solution. If change is truly sought, it is necessary to move toward models of state regulation of cannabis for all purposes. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2016. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug policy Briefing no. 48: Accessed April 6, 2017 at: https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/dpb_48_eng_web_def.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Latin America URL: https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/dpb_48_eng_web_def.pdf Shelf Number: 144729 Keywords: CannabisDrug Abuse and Addiction Drug Offenders Drug Policy Drug ProhibitionDrug Reform Marijuana |
Author: Coyne, Christopher J. Title: Four Decades and Counting: The Continued Failure of the War on Drugs Summary: Private individuals and policymakers often utilize prohibition as a means of controlling the sale, manufacture, and consumption of particular goods. While the Eighteenth Amendment, which was passed and subsequently repealed in the early 20th century, is often regarded as the first major prohibition in the United States, it certainly was not the last. The War on Drugs, begun under President Richard Nixon, continues to utilize policies of prohibition to achieve a variety of objectives. Proponents of drug prohibition claim that such policies reduce drug-related crime, decrease drug-related disease and overdose, and are an effective means of disrupting and dismantling organized criminal enterprises. We analyze the theoretical underpinnings of these claims, using tools and insights from economics, and explore the economics of prohibition and the veracity of proponent claims by analyzing data on overdose deaths, crime, and cartels. Moreover, we offer additional insights through an analysis of U.S. international drug policy utilizing data from U.S. drug policy in Afghanistan. While others have examined the effect of prohibition on domestic outcomes, few have asked how these programs impact foreign policy outcomes. We conclude that prohibition is not only ineffective, but counterproductive, at achieving the goals of policymakers both domestically and abroad. Given the insights from economics and the available data, we find that the domestic War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in drug overdoses and fostered and sustained the creation of powerful drug cartels. Internationally, we find that prohibition not only fails in its own right, but also actively undermines the goals of the Global War on Terror. Details: Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Analysis No. 811: Accessed May 25, 2017 at: https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-811-updated.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-811-updated.pdf Shelf Number: 145797 Keywords: Drug Enforcement Drug Policy Drug ProhibitionDrug War War on Drugs |