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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri

Time: 12:07 pm

Results for heroin

34 results found

Author: Shanahan, Marian

Title: Estimating the Cost-Savings of Reduced Crime While in Methadone Treatment

Summary: The aim of this study was to assess if there was evidence of cost-savings due to crimes averted while individuals were engaged in methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin use. Two sets of analyses are presented in this paper, and they were produced over a four year period for a population-based sample of New South Wales methadone clients. The first analysis is descriptive and presents the total number of treatment days and crimes committed on and off methadone, and the costs of treatment, gaol and crimes for the sample over the four year study period. The second analysis reports the results of the use of a regression analysis to explore whether methadone treatment impacts upon the costs of crime and gaol.

Details: Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2007. 41p.

Source: NDARC Technical Report No. 264: accessed May 8, 2018 at: https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/estimating-cost-savings-reduced-crime-while-methadone-treatment

Year: 2007

Country: Australia

URL: https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/estimating-cost-savings-reduced-crime-while-methadone-treatment

Shelf Number: 116657

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Crime
Drug Abuse Treatment
Drug Offenders
Drug Treatment
Heroin
Methadone

Author: Chalmers, Jenny

Title: How do Methamphetamine Users Respond to Changes in Methamphetamine Price?

Summary: One of the core objectives of supply-side drug law enforcement is to reduce drug use by raising the cost of buying drugs. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on how illicit drug users respond to the rise in costs. The aim of this study was to estimate how methamphetamine users would respond to changes in the prices of methamphetamine and heroin, using hypothetical drug purchasing scenaries.

Details: Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2009. 15p.

Source: Crime and Justice Bulletin; Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, No. 134

Year: 2009

Country: Australia

URL:

Shelf Number: 118546

Keywords:
Drug Enforcement
Drug Offenders
Heroin
Methamphetamine

Author: Reuter, Peter H.

Title: Assessing the Operation of the Global Drug Market

Summary: Illicit drugs, predominantly cocaine and heroin, now generate a substantial international and domestic trade. For these two drugs, production is concentrated in poor nations and the bulk of revenues, though not of consumption, is generated by users in wealthy countries. Earnings have an odd shape; most of the money goes to a very large number of low level retailers in wealthy countries while the fortunes are made by a small number of entrepreneurs, many of whom come from the producing countries. Actual producers and refiners receive one or two percent of the total; almost all the rest is payment for distribution labour. The industry is in general competitive, though some sectors in some countries have small numbers of competing organizations. While it is not difficult to explain why cocaine and heroin production occurs primarily in poor countries and only a little harder to understand why the accounting profits are downstream, almost everything else about the trade presents a challenge, both descriptively and analytically. This report is an attempt to address these challenges and reviews what is known about the operation of these various markets. It offers a theoretical account for a number of the features.

Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009. 31p.

Source: Internet Resource; Report 1

Year: 2009

Country: International

URL:

Shelf Number: 117654

Keywords:
Cocaine
Drug Control
Drugs and Narcotics Control
Heroin
Illicit Drugs

Author: Bezlov, Tihomir

Title: Heroin Users in Bulgaria One Year After Outlawing the Dose for "Personal Use": Law Changes and New Risks

Summary: The report reveals the place of heroin use in Bulgaria and its development since the amendment to the Penal Code repealing Paragraph 3 of Art 354a and its provision. The revision gained public popularity as „the single dose law”. It renders criminal every drug substance possession, regardless of the type or quantity of the substance, or whether the individual in possession of the dose is dependent or not. Under the new regulation, the drug wholesalers, the small drug dealers, and those just using, not trading in drugs, are treated equally harshly. The change was carried out, despite keen objections on the part of experts and civil society organizations that it might lead to severe and unpredictable consequences. The research, however, revealed that the ban on the „single dose”, and its negative implications, are only part of a larger nationwide problem caused not only by the legislative framework, but also by the inadequate institutional response.

Details: Sofia, Bulgaria: Initiative for Health Foundation and the Open Society Institute Sofia, 2005. 24p.

Source: Internet Resource: http://www.csd.bg/fileSrc.php?id=1939

Year: 2005

Country: Bulgaria

URL: http://www.csd.bg/fileSrc.php?id=1939

Shelf Number: 119922

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Crime
Drug Abuse Policy
Drug Addiction and Abuse
Heroin

Author: Holmes, Jessie

Title: Trends in Possession and Use of Narcotics and Cocaine

Summary: This brief describes trends in possession and use of narcotics and cocaine, characteristics of these offences and offenders, and court outcomes for those charged with possession and/or use of narcotics or cocaine. Descriptive analyses were conducted on data sourced from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research’s police recorded criminal incident and person of interest databases as well as from the NSW Reoffending Database and NSW Local Criminal Courts. Data from NSW Health on recorded opioid and cocaine overdoses was also analysed. Recorded incidents of narcotics possession and opioid overdoses fell sharply between 1999 and 2006. Since 2006 both narcotics possession and opioid overdoses doubled, however their levels are still much lower than those recorded prior to the heroin shortage. Recorded incidents of cocaine possession and overdoses have been increasing since 2003 and in 2009, both reached their highest levels in 15 years. Narcotics possession incidents were generally detected on streets and footpaths and at residential premises within Sydney’s CBD and in the Fairfield and Liverpool Local Government Areas. Cocaine possession incidents were detected on streets and footpaths, and at licensed and residential premises, located in Sydney’s CBD and the Eastern Suburbs. Narcotics and cocaine possession offenders tended to be males aged 20 to 39 years. Almost all offenders convicted of narcotics possession had prior convictions (93%) compared with less than half of those convicted of cocaine possession (49%). Most offenders convicted of these offences in 2008 were issued with fines averaging $355 for narcotics possession and $406 for cocaine possession. Taking into account data from other sources, these results suggest that actual levels of narcotics and cocaine use are increasing in NSW.

Details: Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2010. 7p.

Source: Internet Resource: Bureau Brief, Issue Paper No. 52: Accessed October 19, 2010 at: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/bb52.pdf/$file/bb52.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

URL: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/bb52.pdf/$file/bb52.pdf

Shelf Number: 120009

Keywords:
Cocaine
Drug Offenders
Drug Offenses
Heroin
Illicit Drugs
Narcotics

Author: Missouri. Department of Public Safety and Statistical Analysis Center

Title: Nature and Extent of the Illicit Drug Problem in Missouri

Summary: The study focused on illicit drug use, the societal impact of illicit drugs, and extent of the illicit drug industry in the State of Missouri.

Details: Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Statistical Analysis Center, 2010. 39p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2010 at:http://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/SAC/pdf/2010NATUREANDEXTENTREPORT.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: United States

URL: http://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/SAC/pdf/2010NATUREANDEXTENTREPORT.pdf

Shelf Number: 120176

Keywords:
Cocaine
Drug Offenders
Heroin
Illicit Drugs (Missouri)
Methamphetamines
Narcotics

Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Title: The Global Afghan Opium Trade: A Threat Assessment

Summary: Over the last decade, the global trade in illicit Afghan opiates has been one of the world’s greatest transnational drug and crime threats – with severe consequences for health, governance and security at national, regional and international levels. In Afghanistan and elsewhere, transnational organized crime groups were the main beneficiaries of the US$68 billion trade in 2009, which they supplemented with other forms of crime such as arms trafficking and human smuggling. In 2009, the Afghan Taliban was estimated to have earned around $150 million from the opiate trade, Afghan drug traffickers $2.2 billion, and Afghan farmers $440 million. While the findings suggest that most insurgent elements content themselves with taxing the trade rather than attempting to become active participants, it now appears that some insurgents involve themselves directly in the heroin supply chain, including in the procurement of acetic anhydride. Anti-government elements based in Afghanistan and Pakistan may gain access to only a fraction of the value of Afghan opiate exports, but this is nonetheless enough to support logistics, operations and recruitment. Areas under insurgent influence, such as the border between Iraq and Turkey and the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, also provide a key competitive advantage for organized crime groups as those areas lie beyond the reach of law enforcement. If global organized crime groups managing the opiate trade pocketed only 10 per cent of the profit, they would have earned at least $7 billion in 2009. All these illicit profits are laundered in one way or another, a process that undermines the vulnerable economies of areas such as the Balkans and Central Asia. Traffickers tend to shift routes and change their modus operandi as law enforcement pressure increases. Traditional methods of land border control may not be sufficient to stem the flow of opiates into destination markets.

Details: Geneva: UNODC, 2011. 162p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 5, 2011 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Global_Afghan_Opium_Trade_2011-web.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: Afghanistan

URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Global_Afghan_Opium_Trade_2011-web.pdf

Shelf Number: 122312

Keywords:
Drug Trafficking
Drugs and Crime
Heroin
Illegal Drugs
Opium (Afghanistan)
Organized Crime

Author: Larney, Sarah

Title: Opioid Substitution Treatment in Prison and Post-Release: Effects on Criminal Recidivism and Mortality

Summary: Heroin dependence is a chronic condition associated with significant health and social harms. The most effective treatment for heroin dependence is opioid substitution treatment (OST), in which long-acting opioid medications such as methadone or buprenorphine are prescribed with the goal of reducing heroin use and associated harms. Internationally, OST is rarely available in prisons, despite the high proportion of heroin users among prisoners. Furthermore, limited research attention has been given to examining how prison-based OST can reduce the harms of heroin dependence. This thesis reports on two systematic literature reviews and three data linkage studies on the effects of prison-based and post-release OST. The first systematic review found that there is good evidence that prison OST reduces heroin use and needle and syringe sharing among prison inmates. The second review found that the evidence relating to the effects of prison OST on post-release outcomes is inconsistent and has limitations. As such, four data linkage studies were undertaken to assess incarceration, offending and mortality outcomes for a cohort of 375 male heroin users recruited in prisons in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, in 1996-7. Data were linked for the nearly ten-year period 1 June 1997 – 31 December 2006. The first data linkage study assessed whether the baseline data for the cohort could be linked to other databases with sufficient sensitivity and specificity to obtain reliable and valid results regarding episodes of OST. Results showed that maximum sensitivity and specificity were achieved when participants’ aliases were included as identifiers during the linkage process, and that enrolment in OST during the observation period had been reliably ascertained by linkage. The second data linkage study demonstrated that exposure to OST while in prison did not in itself reduce risk of re-incarceration; rather, it was continuation of treatment as the individual returned to the community that reduced the risk of returning to prison. Among participants who remained in OST post-release, risk of re-incarceration was, on average, 80% that of participants not in OST. The third study, assessing re-offending, did not find a relationship between OST exposure and criminal convictions; however, there were indications of bias in the analysis as a result of informative censoring. The fourth data linkage study analysed mortality outcomes for the cohort. Participant mortality was six times that seen in the age-, sex- and calendar-adjusted NSW population, but was moderated while in OST and while in prison. Although mortality was elevated in the 28 days immediately after release from prison in comparison to all other time at liberty, this difference was not statistically significant; a larger sample size may have resulted in a significant finding in this regard. Although OST has been studied extensively, few studies have employed data linkage to examine long-term treatment outcomes, particularly in relation to treatment participation while in prison. The evidence presented in this thesis provides support for the provision of OST in prisons, and for programs that facilitate prisoners’ access to post-release OST. Integration of prisoner healthcare into public health systems may assist in improving continuity of OST as well as general standards of care. Future research should explore how the duration of pre-release treatment affects post-release outcomes and how OST can be combined with therapeutic approaches that address other risk factors for offending. Further follow-ups of the cohort would provide insights into the course and consequences of heroin use in Australia.

Details: Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2010. 192p.

Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 3, 2011 at: http://www.idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/OST-in-prison-and-post-release-effects-on-criminal-recidivism-and-mortality.pdf

Year: 2010

Country: Australia

URL: http://www.idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/OST-in-prison-and-post-release-effects-on-criminal-recidivism-and-mortality.pdf

Shelf Number: 122636

Keywords:
Drug Abuse Treatment
Drug Offenders
Drug Treatment Programs
Heroin
Opioids
Prisoner Reentry
Recidivism
Substance Abuse (Australia)

Author: Latypov, Alisher

Title: Drug Dealers, Drug Lords and Drug Warriors-cum-Traffickers: Drug Crime and the Narcotics Market in Tajikistan

Summary: This report presents research on the role played by the police, petty drug dealers and users in the street level drug trade in Tajikistan. Synthesizing information received from interviews with individual Tajik drug users, annual reports from the Tajik Drug Control Agency as well as lesser- known studies by local researchers, the study brings to light a number of interesting details of the street level drug trade in Tajikistan and discusses their implications for drug policies in the region as a whole. The main findings are: 1. the drug trade is evolving and becoming more mobile whereby cellular communications are used to arrange meetings or direct delivery of drugs to one’s home by the dealer in lieu of the previous practice of using specially-designated apartments or homes for the sale/purchase of drugs; 2.there is an emerging tendency amongst dealers to have purchasers transfer money to their bank accounts to facilitate larger drug sales; 3.heroin in Tajikistan is now more widely available, easier to acquire and of higher quality – all of which is consistent with changes in the prices of high purity heroin in the country in recent years; 4.the current situation in those towns bordering Afghanistan indicates a strong correlation between HIV risk behaviors and expanding HIV epidemics among injecting drug users; 5.new types of drugs like pill-form methadone from Iran and cocaine and ecstasy from China and Russia are available on the drug markets in Tajikistan, with the latter becoming especially popular in night clubs frequented by Tajik youth; 6.the Tajik drug market is being connected to drug markets in other countries through new routes between Tajikistan and China, with drugs moving in both directions, and Tajikistan and Iran. This research likewise illustrates the shocking state of corruption in Tajik law enforcement agencies and penitentiary facilities whereby police and prison officers directly facilitate the distribution of drugs. Law enforcement officials provide (confiscated) heroin to favored dealers, arrest or harass competing dealers and exploit drug users in various ways for the sake of information, money or sexual favors. Drug users are also routinely arrested, often by planting evidence on them, to meet arbitrary quotas, which all but ensures that the activities of larger criminal and drug trafficking organizations will go on unimpeded. Moreover, while the analysis of data from the Tajik Drug Control Agency suggests that the volume of opiates coming to or transiting Tajikistan from Afghanistan might, on the whole, have diminished over the past few years, the reported decrease in opiate seizures appears to be misleading as corruption in law enforcement has kept the country awash in heroin and other drugs. To address these challenges, this study suggests stepping up state prosecution of corrupt police and corrections officers, re-visiting contemporary drug policies through the lens of human rights, introducing policies that discourage targeting and arresting drug users for the purpose of police performance assessment, and providing more harm reduction, drug treatment and legal aid opportunities to people who use drugs both in community and prison settings.

Details: Vilnius, Lithuania: Eurasian Harm Reduction Network, 2011. 23p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 23, 2012 at http://idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/Drug_warriors_in_Takijistan_0.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: Tajikistan

URL: http://idpc.net/sites/default/files/library/Drug_warriors_in_Takijistan_0.pdf

Shelf Number: 123749

Keywords:
Drug Dealers
Drug Policies
Drug Trade (Tajikistan)
Drug Trafficking (Tajikistan)
Heroin
Illegal Drug Trade
Opiates
Police Corruption

Author: Jones, Craig

Title: The effect of arrest and imprisonment on crime

Summary: Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which the probability of arrest, the probability of imprisonment and imprisonment duration impact on property and violent crime rates in New South Wales, Australia. Method: A dynamic panel data model with fixed Local Government Area and time effects was adopted to explore this, while adjusting for potential confounders of the relationship between arrest, imprisonment and crime. The first-differenced generalised method of moments was used to estimate the model parameters. Results: One per cent increases in arrest rates for property and violent crime are estimated to produce 0.10 per cent and 0.19 per cent decreases in property and violent crime, respectively. If the one per cent increase in arrest rates is sustained, the long-run effect is estimated to be 0.14 and 0.30 per cent decreases for property and violent crime, respectively. The short-run elasticities for imprisonment probabilities were smaller, (-0.09 and -0.11), as were the long-run elasticities (-0.12 and -0.17), for property and violent crime, respectively. There was no evidence that increases in the length of imprisonment has any short or long-run impact on crime rates. Conclusion: The criminal justice system plays a significant role in preventing crime. Some criminal justice variables, however, exert much stronger effects than others. Increasing arrest rates is likely to have the largest impact, followed by increasing the likelihood of receiving a prison sentence. Increasing the length of stay in prison beyond current levels does not appear to impact on the crime rate after accounting for increases in arrest and imprisonment likelihood. Policy makers should focus more attention on strategies that increase the risk of arrest and less on strategies that increase the severity of punishment.

Details: Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2012. 20p.

Source: Crime and Justice Bulletin: Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice No. 158: Internet Resource: Accessed March 13, 2012 at http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/cjb158.pdf/$file/cjb158.pdf

Year: 2012

Country: Australia

URL: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/cjb158.pdf/$file/cjb158.pdf

Shelf Number: 124519

Keywords:
Arrests (Australia)
Crime Rates
Heroin
Imprisonment (Australia)

Author: Caunte, Irina

Title: Dynamics of the Romanian Illegal Drug Markets

Summary: Globalization has led to an increase in commercial activities running on the illegal markets, its dynamics being largely determined by the balance between profitability and the major risks involved. Revenues are significant, one example being those obtained from drug industry. In recent years, illicit drug trafficking has seen in Romania an unprecedented escalation, as a result of market liberalization and the movement of per sons and because of the extending the phenomenon both among producers and consumers. This article examines the size of the Romanian illegal drug markets, the countries of origin and drug transit routes, as well as the profits made by the drug trafficking networks.

Details: Iasi, Romania: University of Iasi, Centre for European Studies, 2011. 12p.

Source: Internet Resource: CES Working Papers III, (2), 2011: Accessed July 17, 2012 at: http://www.cse.uaic.ro/WorkingPapers/articles/CESWP2011_III2_CAU.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: Romania

URL: http://www.cse.uaic.ro/WorkingPapers/articles/CESWP2011_III2_CAU.pdf

Shelf Number: 125633

Keywords:
Cocaine
Drug Trafficking (Romania)
Heroin
Illegal Markets

Author: Maftei, Loredana

Title: Illegal Drug Markets in Europe: The Negative Consequences of Globalization

Summary: Globalizing processes have profoundly shaped the European drugs situation. The illegal drug markets have reached to evolve and to transform all the advantages of this phenomenon, in their favor. Based on globalization aspects, the paper purpose is to present the main characteristics of illicit drugs market within European countries, from the last years. Furthermore the article is focused on the analysis of theoretical and empirical drugs literature, especially on the current reports and studies of EMCDDA and UNODC, which indicated certain drug sectors. Due to its richness, position and high demand of illegal drugs, Europe is viewed by criminal organizations as a transit area for heroin, cocaine, cannabis and synthetic drugs, and a big customer which continued to sustain this profitable enterprise, over the last decades. Regarding the drug problem, the governance needs to be reframed and to take account of economical, social and moral character. The simple connection of illegal drug markets with globalization, gives the originality note of the paper, which leads to some important new insights for future research and policy.

Details: Romania: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași,, 2012. 13p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 19, 2012 at: http://www.cse.uaic.ro/WorkingPapers/articles/CESWP2012_IV2_MAF.pdf

Year: 2012

Country: Europe

URL: http://www.cse.uaic.ro/WorkingPapers/articles/CESWP2012_IV2_MAF.pdf

Shelf Number: 125685

Keywords:
Cannabis
Cocaine
Drug Markets
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Illegal Drugs (Europe)

Author: Fetherston, James

Title: Indications and Implications of a Gradual Recovery in Perth’s Heroin Market

Summary: It is a matter of public record that in 2001, there was an abrupt and largely unexplained disruption to the supply of heroin in Australia. Colloquially referred to as the “heroin shortage” (Degenhardt et al, 2006), the effects of the diminished availability of the drug were particularly severe in Western Australia and resulted in an immediate decline in numbers of recent users and their rates of use. Prices rose steeply to a median of $750 per gram despite substantial decreases in userreported levels of purity. In this bulletin we examine the data collected by the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) over the years to consider the possibility that the heroin market in Perth, Western Australia may be in a process of slow recovery.

Details: Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2013. 4p.

Source: Internet Resource: Drug Trends Bulletin: Accessed May 13, 2013 at: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/IDRSapril2013.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: Australia

URL: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/IDRSapril2013.pdf

Shelf Number: 128697

Keywords:
Drug Addiction and Abuse
Drug Markets (Australia)
Heroin

Author: New Jersey Commission of Investigation

Title: Scenes from an Epidemic: A Report on the SCI’s Investigation of Prescription Pill and Heroin Abuse

Summary: Stopping regularly in downtown Newark, the nondescript minivans drew a select clientele: homeless Medicaid recipients and drug addicts who had been told by flyers and word-of-mouth where to wait for a ride. Ten miles and 15 minutes later, they arrived at a strip mall “medical center” on Main Avenue in neighboring Passaic where a doctor licensed by the State of New Jersey quickly got down to the business of cursory examinations and bogus diagnoses. Then he wrote prescriptions for powerful painkillers, sedatives and cough syrup, which his “patients” could use themselves or sell on the street, their choice. They also left with $10 cash gift cards as thanks for coming in. The bill for it all went to government health insurance, which funneled a fortune in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements into the bank accounts of the hidden entrepreneurs the doctor fronted for – associates of Russian organized crime. The flagrant and unbridled operation of this pill mill and others like it, the descent of sworn medical professionals into outright drug dealers, the intrusion of organized crime and other criminal elements into lucrative recesses of the health-care industry to feed an epidemic of demand for drugs: These are among the key findings of the State Commission of Investigation’s ongoing probe of illegal trafficking in and abuse of prescription painkillers and other addictive narcotics. Even as law enforcement authorities, public-health officials, social workers, treatment counselors, schools and families redouble their efforts to combat the purveyors and consequences of this predatory scourge, it continues to evolve in ways that few could have imagined when the so-called war on drugs was launched more than four decades ago. Staggering amounts of legitimate medicines manufactured by major pharmaceutical companies and intended for those needing relief from the pain of disease and injury have been diverted into criminal enterprises founded on drug abuse and addiction. What once was a menacing background narrative centered narrowly around subculture-based substances like opium, morphine and heroin has exploded into a mainstream horror story whose first chapter often begins with pill bottles in the average household medicine cabinet. Some medical management companies with names that incorporate benign terms like “pain management” and “wellness” have transformed street-corner drug-dealing into an orderly and seemingly ordinary business endeavor, except for the hidden financial backing from individuals linked to organized crime, the multiple bank accounts for money-laundering, the expert help of corrupt physicians and the shady characters who recruit and deliver customers and provide security. Meanwhile, conventional drug dealers – those tied to criminal street gangs and similar criminal enterprises – exploit legitimate businesses like used car dealerships, clothing outlets, barber shops, bars and liquor stores to cover their illicit retail commerce. They take advantage of advanced computers, communications and social networking technologies to facilitate criminal activities and thwart law enforcement. And they are finding new ways to profit from a market hungry for addictive drugs stretching well beyond New Jersey’s cities and into the outlying affluence of its suburbs and rural communities. On the demand side, witnesses told the Commission during an unprecedented public hearing that, given the shared properties of pain-numbing, high-inducing substances known as opiates and opioids, the widening abuse of prescription pills containing Oxycodone and related chemical ingredients has triggered a new and sustained rise in use of the original opiate of choice – heroin. Indeed, with high-quality heroin readily available on New Jersey streets today at roughly the same price as a pack of cigarettes – cheaper than painkilling pills of similar strength and effect – it should be no great surprise that the road to addiction has evolved fullcircle. And all too often ensnared in this harrowing, potentially lethal cycle – in many instances before they, or their families, even know it or suspect it – are adolescents, teenagers and twenty-somethings, young people on their way to becoming a new lost generation of what used to be called junkies. Also, much of what used to take place “underground” in the drug milieu is now happening in plain sight. With the advent of instantaneous communication technology and suburban demand, a handful of pills or a bag of heroin is only a text message or cell-phone call away as many dealers now deliver product to customers waiting in shopping-mall parking lots. Former suburban high school students told the Commission that the depth of their prescription pill and heroin dependency played out in full view of teachers and other adults who they said did not seem to have a clue or even care when they nodded off and fell asleep in class, day after day. During a three-week surveillance operation at several major intersections in downtown Trenton, Commission investigators observed a bustling open-air drug market daily during morning rush hour within blocks of New Jersey’s Statehouse. Law enforcement authorities are quite familiar with the spiking collateral damage from this disturbing trend: the thefts and violence, the burglaries, armed robberies, pharmacy holdups and worse. Elsewhere on the frontlines, drug treatment facilities are seeing record numbers of admissions for heroin and other opiate/opioid addictions.

Details: Trenton: New Jersey Commission of Investigation, 2013. 74p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 13, 2013 at: http://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/PillsReport.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: United States

URL: http://www.nj.gov/sci/pdf/PillsReport.pdf

Shelf Number: 129390

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Markets
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Organized Crime
Prescription Drug Abuse (New Jersey, U.S.)

Author: Stafford, Jennifer

Title: Injecting Risk Behaviours, Self-reported mental health and crime; a comparison of recent heroin and non-heroin use from the 2012 IDRS

Summary: The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) monitors emerging trends in the use, price, purity and availability of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis. In addition to a survey of people who inject drugs (PWID), the annual data collection also includes a survey of key experts (KE) who are professionals in the field of illicit drugs and the analysis of existing indicator data on drug-related issues. For the purpose of this bulletin PWID participants were divided into two groups: recent heroin use versus non-heroin use. The bulletin explores differences between these groups in relation to drug use, injecting risk behaviours, self-reported mental health, driving and crime. The participants recruited are a sentinel group able to provide information on a range of illicit drug trends and related issues. Therefore the information from the survey is not representative of illicit drug use in the general population, and is not representative of other illicit drug users (e.g. in other geographical areas, occasional users, etc), but it is indicative of emerging trends that may warrant further monitoring and/or investigation.

Details: Sydney: Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 2013. 5p.

Source: Internet Resource: Drug Trends Bulletin: Accessed August 12, 2013 at: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/IDRSjuly2013_0.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: Australia

URL: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/IDRSjuly2013_0.pdf

Shelf Number: 129623

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction (Australia)
Drug Abuse and Crime
Heroin
Mental Health

Author: Weatherburn, Don

Title: The Decline in Robbery and Theft: Inter-state Comparisons

Summary: Aim: To describe and discuss inter-jurisdictional trends in police-recorded robbery and theft offences. Method: Rates of recorded robbery and theft per head of population are calculated for each Australian jurisdiction from 1994/1995 to 2012. Rates of recorded robbery are disaggregated into armed and unarmed robbery. Rates of recorded theft are disaggregated into burglary, motor vehicle theft and other theft. Results: In most jurisdictions, trends in recorded robbery and theft offences rose during the late 1990s, peaked around 2001 and then fell from 2001 to 2012. Between 2001 and 2009, recorded rates of robbery offences in Australia fell by 49.1 per cent, recorded rates of burglary fell by 57.3 per cent, recorded rates of motor vehicle theft fell by 62.2 per cent and recorded rates of other theft fell by 39.3 per cent. Conclusion: The national decline in robbery and theft offences is partly due to a reduction in heroin use and partly due to improvements in the economy but other factors are likely to have also played a role. Research into the causes of the fall in crime is hampered by the absence of any regional breakdown in national recorded crime statistics.

Details: Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2013. 7p.

Source: Internet Resource: Issue paper no. 89; Accessed August 19, 2013 at: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/BB89.pdf/$file/BB89.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: Australia

URL: http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/vwFiles/BB89.pdf/$file/BB89.pdf

Shelf Number: 129631

Keywords:
Burglary
Crime Drop
Crime Statistics
Drugs and Crime
Heroin
Motor Vehicle Theft
Robbery (Australia)

Author: Muhuri, Pradip K.

Title: Associations of Nonmedical Pain Reliever Use and Initiation of Heroin Use in the United States

Summary: Recent increases in the annual number of persons in the United States who used heroin for the first time have raised concerns that prior nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers may have led to heroin use in many people. This study examines the recent trends in heroin initiation, including the role of nonmedical prescription pain reliever use in the heroin trend among persons aged 12 to 49. Pooling data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted annually from 2002 through 2011, the study finds that the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent). In contrast, the recent NMPR incidence rate was almost 2 times higher among those who reported prior heroin use than who did not (2.8 vs. 1.6 percent). Four out of five recent heroin initiates (79.5 percent) previously used NMPR whereas only 1.0 percent of recent NMPR initiates had prior use of heroin. However, the vast majority of NMPR users have not progressed to heroin use. Only 3.6 percent of NMPR initiates had initiated heroin use within the 5-year period following first NMPR use. The study contributes important new data to improve understanding of the role of prior NMPR use in initiation of heroin use in the U.S. general population.

Details: Washington, DC: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, SAMHSA, 2013. 17p.

Source: Internet Resource: CBHSQ Data Review: Accessed July 16, 2014 at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/2k13/DataReview/DR006/nonmedical-pain-reliever-use-2013.htm

Year: 2013

Country: United States

URL: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/2k13/DataReview/DR006/nonmedical-pain-reliever-use-2013.htm

Shelf Number: 132698

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Heroin
Prescription Drug Abuse

Author: Financial Action Task Force

Title: Financial flows linked to the production and trafficking of Afghan opiates

Summary: 1. Drug trafficking is a business, but our understanding of this enterprise and response to it remain limited - less than 0.5% of the total laundered funds are seized. 2. In 2011, the annual volume of the global opiate market was estimated at USD 68 billion (with around USD 60 billion from Afghan opiates). However, no widely agreed method or framework currently exists to map "the business model". Although a number of business modelling methodologies appear to have been created by academics, multilateral bodies and private organisations, the survey responses suggest that it remains unclear if these methodologies have been practically incorporated into law enforcement and FIU's intelligence collection plans and disruption strategies. 3. Terrorists profit from and are engaged in opiate trafficking - over half the Afghan Taliban Senior Leadership listed under United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1988 are involved in drug trafficking. 4. The UN Al Qaida and Taliban Monitoring Team assesses that opiate-financing will imminently be the leading source of income for the Afghan Taliban and thus enable a major threat to the national security of Afghanistan and wider regional stability. 5. International opiate traffickers rely on the services of financial professionals, either unwitting or complicit, to manage their assets but no global system exists to alert countries or the private sector of these individuals and entities, or to freeze the assets of opiate traffickers. 6. At most stages in the enterprise, opiates and associated financial flows do not follow the same routes. 7. The Afghan opiate business is believed to be a mixture of both cartels and multiple markets. There appears to be no single or small group of cartels that control the global opiate trade; but some groups control significant portions of the trade along various routes. However, detailed and reliable information regarding this issue remains limited and this can be considered a key information gap. 8. Between 50-90% of all financial transactions in Afghanistan are conducted via money or value transfer services (MVTS). Illicit use of MVTS appears to be a critical capability for opiate trafficking networks, not only in Afghanistan but also internationally. 9. The majority of illicit funds are likely moved through, and possibly stored in, financial centres. As the region's leading financial centre, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) financial system appears to be particularly vulnerable to abuse by opiate traffickers, regionally and internationally. 10. Cash, commodity-transfer and MVTS appear to be the leading value transfer instruments at the cultivation and manufacture stages of the enterprise; the formal financial system, MVTS and high-value commodities appear to facilitate international distribution of opiates. 11. Apart from cash, new payment methods (including virtual currencies) are used at consumer and international distribution stages of the Afghan opiate enterprise, albeit less than the above methods but may pose significant challenges to regulators, financial intelligence units (FIUs) and law enforcement agencies. 12. Many similarities exist between financing methodologies of different illicit drugs. Opiate-specific and more generic red flag indicators have been identified and collated. 13. This project was conducted in parallel with the Paris Pact (UNODC) Illicit Financial Flows analysis. The ML/TF threats from illicit groups, vulnerabilities in AML/CFT systems and opportunities identified herein are being used for immediate technical assistance delivery within the framework of the UNODC's current activities.

Details: Paris: Financial Action Task Force, 2014. 77p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2014 at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Financial-flows-linked-to-production-and-trafficking-of-afghan-opiates.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: International

URL: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Financial-flows-linked-to-production-and-trafficking-of-afghan-opiates.pdf

Shelf Number: 132781

Keywords:
Drug Markets
Drug Trafficking
Financial Crimes
Heroin
Illicit Drugs
Money Laundering

Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Title: The Illicit Drug Trade Through South-Eastern Europe

Summary: South-Eastern Europe has long served as a corridor for several drug-trafficking routes to Western and Central Europe. Owing to its geographical position between Afghanistan, the world's most important opiate-producing country, and the large and lucrative markets for opiates in Western and Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe is a crucial stage on one of the world's most important heroin trafficking routes, the "Balkan route". Diverse drug flows come from multiple directions. Externally, cocaine arrives from South America. Internally, South-Eastern Europe produces relatively large amounts of cannabis, most notably in Albania, and the region also has a recent history of producing and trafficking amphetamine-type-stimulants (ATS). Of all these drug flows, however, only heroin flows can be considered strategically significant to consumption markets in Western and Central Europe. It is important to note that South-Eastern Europe is not only a transit region, but also faces drug consumption challenges in its own right and is vulnerable to corruption. In order to place policymakers and law enforcement analysts in a better position to evaluate the drug-trafficking situation and make informed decisions regarding responses, this report analyses the major and emerging drug trends, including use, for heroin, cocaine, ATS and cannabis. Based on findings from data submitted to UNODC by countries and territories, reports from regional organizations such as SELEC and Frontex and publicly available publications and scientific literature, the report also looks at the responses of countries in the region to related challenges. With a particular focus on heroin, it analyses the Balkan route from its origin on the borders of Afghanistan, through the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey, into South-Eastern Europe and up to its end point in Western and Central Europe, where the four principal opiate user markets it serves (the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy) are located.

Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2014. 142p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 28, 2014 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Illicit_DT_through_SEE_REPORT_2014_web.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: Europe

URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Illicit_DT_through_SEE_REPORT_2014_web.pdf

Shelf Number: 132793

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Enforcement
Drug Trafficking (Europe)
Heroin

Author: Kamminga, Jorrit

Title: Opium poppy licensing in Turkey: A model to solve Afghanistan's illegal opium economy?

Summary: The report analyses the Turkish opium licensing system as a way to illustrate the "normality" of such an industry. The latter function is important for the current debate on using similar systems in other countries. In Afghanistan, for example, the opium poppy is still solely associated with illegal drug consumption, drug trafficking, crime and insurgency. On the contrary, in Turkey, opium poppies are regarded as both traditional medicine and an essential part of a rich cooking tradition. As such, the poppy licensing industry in Turkey should be regarded less a direct example of how to implement a similar model in Afghanistan, but more as an illustration of an alternative, non-politicised way of looking at the opium poppy plant and its potential benefits for Afghanistan.

Details: Kabul, Afghanistan: International Council on Security and Development, 2011. 68p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 2, 2014 at: http://www.icosgroup.net/static/reports/Opium_Licensing_Turkey_Jorrit_Kamminga.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: Turkey

URL: http://www.icosgroup.net/static/reports/Opium_Licensing_Turkey_Jorrit_Kamminga.pdf

Shelf Number: 133549

Keywords:
Drug Policy
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Illegal Drugs
Opium Poppy Cultivation

Author: Kachin Women's Association Thailand

Title: Silent Offensive: How Burma Army strategies are fuelling the Kachin drug crisis

Summary: "Silent Offensive" by the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) reveals how the Burma Army is allowing its local militia to grow opium and produce heroin and other drugs in exchange for fighting against the KIA. As Burmese troops and their allies have progressively seized control of KIA areas, drug production has been increasing. The main opium growing areas in Kachin State are now in Chipwi and Waingmaw townships, under the control of the Burma Army and its local Border Guard Forces led by Zakhung Ting Ying, a National Assembly MP. In northern Shan State, opium is booming in areas under the Burma Army and thirteen government militia forces, four of whose leaders are MPs in the Shan State Assembly. Opium, heroin and methamphetamines are flooding from these government-controlled areas into Kachin communities, worsening existing problems of drug abuse, particularly among youth. It is estimated that about one third of students in Myitkyina and Bhamo universities are injecting drug users. The report details the harrowing impacts of the drug crisis on women, who struggle to support their families while husbands and sons sell off household property and steal to feed their addiction. Frustrated with the authorities' lack of political will to deal with the drug problem, women are taking a lead among local communities in setting up their own programs to combat drugs. KWAT critiques UNODC and other international donors for not focusing on the role of the war, and particularly the anti-insurgency policies of the government, in fuelling the drug problem in Burma. KWAT urges all stakeholders to focus on finding a just political settlement to the conflict as an urgent priority in tackling the drug crisis.

Details: Chiang Mai, Thailand: Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT), 2014. 50p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2014 at: http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/7Oct14Report/silent_offensive_drug_report_english.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: Burma

URL: http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/7Oct14Report/silent_offensive_drug_report_english.pdf

Shelf Number: 133914

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Heroin
Illegal Drugs
Narcotics (Burma)
Opium

Author: Police Executive Research Forum

Title: New Challenges for Police: A Heroin Epidemic and Changing Attitudes Toward Marijuana

Summary: Is the United States fundamentally shifting its approach to drugs? That's a question underlying this report. I think that in many ways, the nation still sees the harm that drugs cause to individual lives and to the fabric of our society. There is no question that drug abuse is a scourge and a tragedy. And the related issue of gang violence associated with drug trafficking is one of the biggest problems in many U.S. cities. Still, around the edges, changes are noticeable. This report details two of those changes. Surge in heroin abuse: First, we are experiencing a spreading epidemic of heroin abuse in many cities and towns across the nation. At the PERF Summit that is the center of this report, FBI Director James Comey told us he has been traveling the nation, and in every single FBI field office he has visited, people have been talking about heroin. Marijuana legalization: The other major topic of this report-the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington State this year-is another issue where there has been a shift in attitude. Public opinion about marijuana obviously has been changing for some time. Nearly half of the 50 states have legalized medical marijuana, going back as far as 1996.

Details: Washington, DC: PERF, 2014. 64p.

Source: Internet Resource: Critical Issues in Policing Series: Accessed October 20, 2014 at: http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Critical_Issues_Series_2/a%20heroin%20epidemic%20and%20changing%20attitudes%20toward%20marijuana.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: United States

URL: http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Critical_Issues_Series_2/a%20heroin%20epidemic%20and%20changing%20attitudes%20toward%20marijuana.pdf

Shelf Number: 133742

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Policy
Heroin
Marijuana (U.S.)
Marijuana Legalization

Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Title: Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2014: Lao PDR, Myanmar

Summary: This year's Southeast Asia Opium Survey shows that despite continued eradication efforts, opium production remains a significant challenge to sustainable development in the region. Poppy cultivation in the 'Golden Triangle' of Myanmar and Lao PDR rose in 2014 to 63,800ha, compared with 61,200ha in 2013. The estimated total amount of opium produced in the area in 2014 is approximately 762 tons, with the overwhelming majority of cultivation continuing to take place in Myanmar. The data further emphasize the urgent need to address root causes of cultivation and promote alternative development. Surveys of farmers indicate that, for many, the money made from poppy cultivation is an essential part of family income and support. Villages threatened with food insecurity and poverty need sustainable alternatives, or they will have little choice beyond growing this cash crop out of desperation. Indications of high levels of consumption of the refined form of opium - heroin - in parts of the region also represent a clear danger to health and development, underscoring the need for evidence-based, health-centred approaches to prevention and treatment. Efforts to tackle the trafficking of heroin and essential precursor chemicals by criminal groups must also be supported. Most of the heroin trafficked from Myanmar goes to neighbouring countries to meet demand in large population centres, but it is also trafficked to other parts of the region and to global markets. Meanwhile, precursors required to produce heroin are trafficked into Myanmar from neighbouring countries. This two-way trade in and out of the Golden Triangle needs to be halted. Traffickers also appear to be exploiting well-intended regional connectivity and integration plans, including the ASEAN Economic Community and supporting initiatives of international financial institutions. Efforts need to be made to strengthen the capacity and coordination of border, justice and health authorities to counter this transnational challenge. A balanced approach addressing opium production through alternative livelihood initiatives, preventing drug use and providing evidence-based treatment, while countering trafficking of heroin and related precursor chemicals, in line with the international drug control conventions and compliance with human rights standards, should be prioritized by states and international partners to safeguard and promote the region's sustainable development.

Details: Bangkok: UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 2014. 105p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 11, 2015 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/sea/SE-ASIA-opium-poppy-2014-web.pdf

Year: 2014

Country: Asia

URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/sea/SE-ASIA-opium-poppy-2014-web.pdf

Shelf Number: 134897

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Opium (Asia)
Organized Crime

Author: Lipari, Rachel N.

Title: Trends in Heroin Use in the United States: 2002 to 2013

Summary: -Heroin use remains uncommon in the United States, with an estimated 681,000 past year users in 2013 (0.3 percent of the population aged 12 or older); however, the percentage of people using heroin is higher in 2013 than it was a decade ago. -In 2013, there were 169,000 past year heroin initiates, which is similar to the number of initiates in most years since 2002. -The number of people aged 12 or older who received treatment for heroin during their most recent substance use treatment in the past year was higher in 2013 (526,000) than it was a decade ago. Since the length of the recovery process varies and often requires long-term support, people who receive treatment may no longer be past year users. -The percentage of adolescents aged 12 to 17 perceiving great risk from using heroin once or twice a week was lower in 2013 than in 2002 to 2009; while the percentage of adolescents reporting that it would be easy for them to get heroin if they wanted some was lower in 2013 than the percentages in 2002 to 2011.

Details: Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2015. 11p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 24, 2015 at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_1943/ShortReport-1943.html

Year: 2015

Country: United States

URL: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_1943/ShortReport-1943.html

Shelf Number: 135388

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction (U.S.)
Heroin
Substance Abuse

Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Title: Transnational Organized Crime in Eastern Africa: A Threat Assessment

Summary: Key Findings: - Transnational organized crime in Eastern Africa is a product of both illicit markets that span continents and an underlying weakness in the rule of law. - Due to conflict and poverty, Eastern Africa produces a large and vulnerable stream of smuggled migrants, who are abused and exploited at multiple stages of their journey. - More than 100,000 people paid smugglers to transport them across the Gulf of Aden or Red Sea to Yemen in 2012, generating an income for the boatmen of over US$15 million. - Around 80,000 of these migrants attempted to cross Yemen to Saudi Arabia, but many of these were waylaid by smugglers and subjected to a range of abuses, including confinement, beatings, extortion and rape. - Despite the large numbers, the flow of migrants is concentrated, with most embarking from two port areas (Obock, Djibouti and Boosaaso, Somalia) where interventions could be addressed. - Heroin has been trafficked to and through Eastern Africa since at least the 1980s, but a series of recent large seizures suggests that this flow has increased. - Some air couriering has been noted, but it appears the great bulk of the heroin is being transported by dhow from the Makran Coast, an area that spans Iran and Pakistan. - The local market is estimated to consume at least 2.5 tons of pure heroin per year, worth some US$160 million in local markets. The volumes trafficked to the region appear to be much larger, as much as 22 tons, suggesting substantial tran-shipment. Eastern Africa is a known transit area for heroin destined for South Africa and West Africa. - Given the prevalence of blood borne disease and known injection drug use, the spread of heroin throughout the region must be carefully monitored and addressed. - Recent research indicates that the rate of poaching in Eastern Africa has increased, rising to levels that could threaten the local elephant population. - The bulk of the large ivory shipments from Africa to Asia appears to pass through the container ports of Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania, where interventions could be addressed. - It is estimated that between 5,600 and 15,400 elephants are poached in Eastern Africa annually, producing between 56 and 154 metric tons of illicit ivory, of which two-thirds (37 tons) is destined for Asia, worth around US$30 million in 2011. - Somali pirates brought in an estimated US$150 million in 2011, which is equivalent to almost 15% of Somalia's GDP. - Effective intervention has forced pirates to range ever further from the coast to attain their targets: in 2005, the average successful pirate attack was 109 km from the Somali coast; in 2012, it was 746 km. Ships have also become more effective at defending themselves. - The increase in risk associated with protracted expeditions and international countermeasures have contributed to a decline in piracy: in April of 2009 alone, pirates hijacked 16 ships, but after April 2011, they averaged less than one per month. There were no successful hijackings for ransom in the Somali area of operations in the first half of 2013.

Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2013. 54p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 28, 2015 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/TOC_East_Africa_2013.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: Africa

URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/TOC_East_Africa_2013.pdf

Shelf Number: 129829

Keywords:
Animal Poaching
Drug Trafficking
Elephants
Heroin
Human Smuggling
Ivory
Migrants
Organized Crime
Pirates/Piracy
Wildlife Crime

Author: Unal, Mehmet

Title: Application of Situational Crime Prevention to Cross-Border Heroin Trafficking in Turkey

Summary: Drug use and trafficking is one of the most significant problems of today's society. According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control Program, 16 million people are described as problem drug users meaning they are dependent to illegal drugs in their daily life. Problems associated with illegal drugs are not only associated with people's health but also related to economy, politics and social life. Illegal drug trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. When it spreads across society, illegal drug business is highly associated with judicial, political, and socio-economical instability in local communities. Arguably one of the leading crime prevention theories is Situational Crime Prevention theory. Situational Crime Prevention seeks to reduce opportunities of specific crimes by increasing risk and reducing the awards. Positive effects of situational prevention strategies on street level crimes are well documented in rigorous academic studies. Although the situational approach has been successfully applied to street level crimes, there are few examples of application to macro level cross-border crimes. This study will test whether international drug trafficking is suitable for application of situational crime prevention. Specifically, this study seeks to locate possible opportunity reduction points in the drug trafficking process. The study has three steps. First the nature and dimension of the drug trafficking in Turkey will be analyzed with specific data provided from Turkish National Police's archives. Second, this data will be analyzed to identify the situational factors that facilitate drug trafficking. Finally, possible means of blocking opportunities for drug trafficking will be explored.

Details: Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati, 2009. 163p.

Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed July 8, 2015 at: http://cech.uc.edu/content/dam/cech/programs/criminaljustice/docs/phd_dissertations/Unal,%20Mehmet.pdf

Year: 2009

Country: Turkey

URL: http://cech.uc.edu/content/dam/cech/programs/criminaljustice/docs/phd_dissertations/Unal,%20Mehmet.pdf

Shelf Number: 135919

Keywords:
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Situational Crime Prevention

Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda

Title: Assessment of the Implementation of the United States Government's Support for Plan Colombia's Illicit Crop Reduction Components

Summary: This study provides an assessment of the success to date of Counter-Narcotics (CN) efforts under Plan Colombia along with a set of recommendations for the United States Government (USG) to strengthen future CN efforts directed at increasing security, decreasing coca cultivation and cocaine, and opium poppy and heroin production in Colombia. Plan Colombia commenced in 1999 as a multi-year effort to stem a decades' long spiral towards domestic violence, fueled by narcotics funding resulting from an increasingly robust drug industry. Plan Colombia provided funding to support increased security and counternarcotics efforts, and to address issues of rural development, rule of law, human rights, and support for displaced persons. The assessment was carried out by a team of specialists in economic policy, alternative development, law and security and comparative drug control. The team reviewed documents and secondary literature, conducted interviews with relevant US and Government of Colombia (GOC), local officials, development workers, representatives of national agencies, farmers, farm association officials and other stakeholders. It undertook three site visits, in South of Bolivar (Sur de Bolivar), in Macarena (Meta) and in Narino. In all three sites, team members conducted focus groups made up of local officials, representatives of national ministries, members of farmer associations and farmers. The team also used economic regressions and simulations to assist its analyses. The team examined the history of Plan Colombia, reviewed performance in areas such as implementation of alternative development, impact of eradication, cost effectiveness, improvements in security, and socio-economic aspects of state presence. The report looks at approaches to adjusting performance measures for CN programs. With a view toward formulating recommendations for the future, the report presents analyses of lessons that could be drawn from the significant reduction in poppy cultivation, the role of alternative development and the involvement of citizens and local governments in coca reduction. The report examines the internal balloon effect as that influences the geographic dispersion of coca cultivation. Finally, the report reviews various elements of rural development and agricultural policy as well as providing an estimation of the extent that families in rural areas are vulnerable to participating in coca cultivation. (Vulnerable families are defined as families in coca growing areas that share the socioeconomic characteristics of existing coca farmers.)

Details: Washington, DC: Management Systems International, 2009. 177p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2015 at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACN233.pdf

Year: 2009

Country: Colombia

URL: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PDACN233.pdf

Shelf Number: 136307

Keywords:
Cocaine
Drug Enforcement
Drug Police
Drug Trafficking
Drugs and Crime
Heroin
Plan Colombia

Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Title: The Afghan Opiate Trade and Africa - A Baseline Assessment

Summary: This report presents a "Baseline Assessment" of the illicit Afghan opiate trafficking situation in Africa, with a focus on heroin trafficking along the southern route out of Afghanistan into, through and from Africa. The main objective of this report is to provide an initial evidence base to support policymakers and law enforcement officials in evaluating the trafficking of Afghan opiates into and across the continent, and to allow the development of effective responses to the issue. While Africa has traditionally been perceived as a transit region for heroin and other drugs moving to destination markets in Europe, North America and Asia, drug trafficking and organized crime is increasingly posing a multifaceted challenge to health, the rule of law and development within the continent itself. Eastern Africa faces many challenges. Natural disasters and civil war, recurrent food shortages and droughts have left many of the region's 180 million people struggling under extreme poverty, and this has been exacerbated by corruption and poor governance. Eastern Africa is increasingly becoming a major landing point for heroin shipped from Afghanistan to Africa via the Indian Ocean. However, despite this increase in maritime smuggling, seizure rates of opiate within Eastern Africa remain low. In Western Africa, drug trafficking, notably via air couriers, has been going on for decades with trafficking networks making extensive use of established courier networks to move drugs, both heroin and cocaine, towards destination markets. This is one of the poorest regions in the world, and in many of the countries in this region governance and law enforcement continues to face challenges as a result of a lack of resources, making the region vulnerable to organised crime. These factors, combined with West Africa's geographic location along major and well established trafficking routes between, for example, South America and Europe, make it attractive to organized crime. Northern Africa appears to be somewhat of an outlier in this analysis of the opiate trade in the African continent, possibly due to being separate from wider drug trafficking trends seen in sub-Saharan Africa, and as a result of being mainly supplied by a sub-section of the Balkan route rather than the southern route. Heroin seizures in Northern Africa are limited and drug addiction rates are generally low. Knowledge of the current drug trafficking picture in Southern Africa is limited. A lack of heroin seizure, purity and consumption data is notable across the region, largely due to a lack of law enforcement capacity and poor data collection processes. While Mozambique and South Africa are known to be major transshipment countries for Afghan opiates, the broader picture of how this affects Southern Africa remains largely unknown. There remains a risk that traffickers will exploit limited law enforcement capacity in Southern Africa, leading to increasing drug trafficking and use, which in turn will further inhibit economic and social development within the region. Comprehensive data on the prices of opiates throughout Africa is currently unavailable. Although heroin commands a reasonably high price in parts of Africa, greater profits can generally be made in other destination markets and it is likely that prices of heroin in Africa remain significantly lower than in other international markets. There is limited data on the purity of heroin trafficked into, through and out of Africa, and there is no evidence to suggest that heroin is produced in Africa itself. Globally, Africa is estimated to be home to 11 per cent of global opiate users and of this 11 per cent of users living in Africa, more than 50 per cent live in Western and Central Africa. While cannabis remains the number one illicit drug used both on the continent and globally, and the only drug produced in Africa for export in large quantities, heroin appears to be becoming more popular in some areas, particularly in Eastern Africa. Synthetic opiates such as Tramadol are also used in Africa and use of such opiates may lead to the use of Afghan opiates, should market conditions for heroin change. Use of Afghan-sourced heroin has wider public health impacts in Africa, including on transmission rates of HIV and Hepatitis C, although data on this area remains limited.

Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2016. 78p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 28, 2016 at: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiate_trade_Africa_2016_web.pdf

Year: 2016

Country: Africa

URL: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiate_trade_Africa_2016_web.pdf

Shelf Number: 138840

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Smuggling
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Maritime Crime
Opium
Organized Crime

Author: Kane-Willis, Kathleen

Title: Hidden in Plain Sight: Heroin's Impact on Chicago's West Side

Summary: The West side of Chicago may be mentioned in media reports, but in passing -- a place where suburban or increasingly rural users travel to in order to purchase heroin. However, Chicago's West side has not been spared from the health consequences of the heroin crisis, which are severe, significant and mostly silent. While the focus remains on suburban and rural users, the majority of hospitalizations for opioids (including heroin) and publicly funded treatment admissions data paint a different picture:  In 2013, 80% of the State's heroin treatment admissions occurred in the Chicago Metro Area;  Analysis of Illinois Department of Public Health Data indicate that the majority (67%) of total Illinois hospitalizations for opioids, including heroin, occurred in Chicago (2010 data) and 79% occurred in Cook County, while about 3% occurred in DuPage county (2,711) in the same period;  West side hospitalizations for opioids, including heroin, comprised nearly 1 out of 4 opioid hospitalizations for the entire State (23%);  West side hospitalizations make up 35% of the Chicago's total, compared to 7% for the North Side, and 20% for South side of Chicago;  The majority of those hospitalized for opioids on Chicago's West side were Black (83%). Diminishing Capacity Illinois publicly funded treatment capacity has declined rapidly. This decline in funding impacts those across the state but particularly those in the Chicago Metro Area, and may have a disparate impact on Black individuals - especially those in areas like the West side -- who are attempting to gain access to treatment. For example:  In just 5 years, from 2009 to 2013, the Chicago Metro Area lost 61% of its publicly funded treatment capacity compared to a state decline of 54%;  Blacks entering publicly funded treatment for heroin from the Chicago Metro Area comprised 58% of the Chicago Metro Areas treatment episodes for heroin;  The only area with a larger change in treatment episodes occurred in the Bloomington Metro area which experienced a 63% reduction in capacity from 2009 to 2013, while rural areas decreased by 39% and Peoria Metro remained stable. Mortality The image presented in news media and other forums suggests that heroin overdose is primarily a white problem, but analysis of Illinois Public Health data sets paints a different picture:  The heroin overdose mortality rate was significantly higher for African Americans (8.94 per 100,000) than for whites (5.86). Latino deaths were too low to calculate a significant rate, but both white deaths and Black deaths increased rapidly between 2013 and 2014;  Fifty-seven percent of overdoses among Blacks were due to heroin, while 37% of whites died from heroin overdoses.  Chicago had the highest rate of heroin overdose (7.42 per 100,000) significantly higher than Suburban Cook (4.73), Will (5.42), Lake (5.55), McHenry (5.53), DuPage (4.72), Kane (2.86). Arrests and Neighborhood Disparity The majority of the attention paid to the West side in regard to the heroin crisis and use is policing, arrest and incarceration rather than health based solutions for heroin use disorders. These policy and policing decisions have an impact on not only the community but on our spending for the state.  Even as arrests for heroin possession declined by 30 percent from 2010 to 2015 across the City of Chicago, the West side neighborhoods of West and East Garfield Park experienced an increase in the heroin possession arrest rate from 2010-2015;  The four Chicago neighborhoods with the highest rates of arrest for heroin possession in 2015 include West Garfield Park (2,983 arrests per 100,000), East Garfield Park (1,925 arrests per 100,000), North Lawndale (1,375.58 arrests per 100,000) and Humboldt Park (per 100,000), which all located on the West side of Chicago compared to a City rate of 141 per 100,000;  To put these arrest rates in context, the rate for heroin possession arrests in West Garfield Park (2,983 per 100,000) was more than 20 times higher than the rate for the city as a whole (141 per 100,000), East Garfield Park's was about 13 times higher than the city�s rate, North Lawndale 9 times higher and Austin (642 per 100,000) 4 times the city's rate;  West Garfield Park's rate was 2,000 times higher than Lincoln Park's arrest rate (1.56 per 100,000) and compared to Hyde Park, West Garfield Park's rate of arrest was 766 times higher than Hyde Park's rate (3.89 per 100,000).  In five areas of Chicago, no arrests for heroin possession occurred during 2015. Incarcerating individuals costs $25,000 per year, while jail time costs about $150 a day. As the state reconsiders its policies regarding both crime reduction, cost savings and reducing prison populations, it is important to recognize that providing treatment, such as methadone, returns $12 for every dollar spent. Imprisoning individuals with heroin use disorders, a health condition, is neither cost effective nor as effective as treatment in the community. Treatment in the community returns significant savings to taxpayers and societyi in public health and economic savings. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Increase Community Based Treatment Capacity - Particularly Medication Assisted Treatment According to analysis, Cook County has high treatment need and not enough providers for opioid use disorders, for example:  In Illinois, for everyone 1,000 residents 3.8 people has opioid use disorders than could be treated under the current system.  Currently Cook County can only treat about 15,000 individuals but the need is much higher than the system can accommodate currently. Create a Misdemeanor Classification for Small Amounts of Drugs Heroin and other opioids, no matter the amount, are currently felonies in Illinois but this is inconsistent with federal law, and many other states have created misdemeanors for personal use, for small amounts of drugs other than cannabis. Illinois policymakers have introduced legislation to reduce amounts under 1 gram from a felony to a misdemeanor.  According to polling of Illinois residents, 78% of Illinoisan believe in reclassifying small amounts of drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor.  Not only would this policy change help prevent the collateral consequences of felony convictions on those with substance use disorder, but it would yield a cost savings of $58M over three years according to a fiscal impact analysis conducted by the Sentencing Policy Advisory Council. Provide Methadone and/or Buprenorphine Maintenance in Cook County Jail and Create Linkages to Treatment Providers There exist a number of models, like the Riker's Island model in New York City, where individuals who are addicted to heroin or other opioids are provided with opioid agonist (e.g. methadone, buprenorphine) treatment in jail and then are linked to continuing methadone or buprenorphine treatment providers in the community.  These programs have demonstrated great success in both lowering crime and retaining individuals in treatment - which is one of the biggest predictor of treatment success;  Research demonstrates that methadone maintenance yielded better results than counseling alone for detainees in terms of one month and yearly relapse rates. Naloxone Dispensing in Different Environments Researchers have consistently demonstrated that more naloxone distributed in the community lowers the fatal overdose rate overall. In order to ensure that persons who are at high risk for overdose have access to naloxone (which is now covered by Medicaid as private insurance under Public Act 099‐0480), it is essential to ensure that it is more widely distributed under "standing orders," in the following settings:  In the Emergency Department, hospitals should prescribe or distribute naloxone to individuals who have experienced overdose;  In Treatment Centers and after Detox , according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, naloxone education and distribution programs should be incorporated into the treatment system;  In Cook County Jail, Cook County Jail is now launching a pilot to ensure that individuals have access to opioid overdose education and naloxone. This program should be expanded. Increase Access to Harm Reduction Practices Harm reduction practices are an excellent way to bridge the gap to reduce the health consequences of heroin use. Harm reduction practices include the following:  Syringe exchange, including cookers, cottons and needles to stop the spread of blood borne pathogens and naloxone distribution;  Housing First initiatives, which do not require complete abstinence from substances, before being housed;  Safe use and consumption facilities, staffed with medical professionals to ensure that overdoses can be reversed as safe consumption facilities also reduce fatal overdoses in the community.

Details: Chicago: Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, 2016. 24p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2016 at: https://www.roosevelt.edu/CAS/CentersAndInstitutes/IMA/ICDP.aspx

Year: 2016

Country: United States

URL: https://www.roosevelt.edu/CAS/CentersAndInstitutes/IMA/ICDP.aspx

Shelf Number: 147875

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Abuse Treatment
Drug Offenders
Heroin
Heroin Addicts
Neighborhoods and crime

Author: U.S. National Heroin Task Force

Title: National Heroin Task Force Final Report and Recommendations

Summary: "The United States is in the grip of a national crisis - an unprecedented surge in the illicit use of prescription opioid medications and heroin. In 2014, 1.9 million people had a prescription opioid use disorder and nearly 600,000 had a heroin use disorder. The national data on overdose deaths are startling: in 2014, there were more than 27,000 overdose deaths involving prescription opioid medications and /or heroin. That is equivalent to an average of one death every 20 minutes. The opioid epidemic affects a broad cross-section of the United States population without regard to age, gender, race, ethnicity, or economic status. Living in a rural, suburban, or urban jurisdiction does not insulate an individual from the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Traditional law enforcement methods are a critical component of any counter-illicit drug strategy, but they will not resolve this crisis alone. The opioid crisis is also fundamentally a public health problem. The recommendations contained in this report are premised up on three principles: 1) public safety and public health authorities must integrate and harmonize their response to the misuse of prescription opioid medications and use of heroin; 2) policies regarding heroin use and misuse of prescription opioid medications must be grounded in a scientific understanding that substance use disorder is a chronic brain disease that can be prevented and treated; and 3) treatment and recovery services and support must be accessible and affordable.

Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2015. 35p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 17, 2016 at: https://www.justice.gov/file/822231/download

Year: 2015

Country: United States

URL: https://www.justice.gov/file/822231/download

Shelf Number: 140330

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Enforcement
Drug Policy
Heroin
Prescription drug Abuse

Author: New York State. Heroin and Opioid Task Force

Title: Combatting the Heroin and Opioid Crisis

Summary: Across the state the Task Force has heard from families who have loved ones addicted to heroin or other opioids, who have overdosed or have had serious health problems as a result of their addiction. Heroin overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the state. Between 2005 and 2014, upstate New York has seen an astonishing 222 percent increase in admissions to OASAS certified treatment programs among those 18 to 24 years of age for heroin and other opioids; Long Island has seen a 242 percent increase among the same age group for heroin and other opioids. In all, approximately 1.4 million New Yorkers suffer from a substance use disorder. Heroin and opioid addiction is now a major public health crisis in New York State. Further work must continue to fully realize the Governor's vision for a more responsive, accessible, and compassionate health care system for patients, as well as stronger education, prevention, and enforcement measures. The Task Force recommends that study and work on these issues continue as a high priority, so that New York can remain in the forefront when it comes to helping patients and their families. New York has taken important steps to address the urgent needs of those in critical condition and to prevent future generations from suffering from the disease of addiction. For the 2016 fiscal year, New York State allocated over $1.4 billion to the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) to fight this battle including funding for 1,455 beds for patients in crisis; 2,221 beds for inpatient rehabilitation programs; 5,247 beds for intensive residential programs; 2,142 beds for community residential programs; 1,842 beds in supportive living programs; and 265 beds in residential rehabilitation programs for youth. Additionally, OASAS provides more than $74 million to fund prevention services through 165 providers serving communities in every county, including 1,400 schools across the state. The State has also enacted legislation to address this growing epidemic. In 2012 the State enacted the Prescription Drug Reform Act, overhauling the way prescription drugs are dispensed and tracked in New York to improve safeguards for drugs that are prone to abuse. The Act updated the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) Registry (also known as I-STOP) to require pharmacies to report information about dispensed controlled substances on a "real time" basis, as well as require health care practitioners to consult the PMP Registry before prescribing or dispensing certain controlled substances most prone to abuse and diversion. The Act also mandated electronic prescription of controlled substances, updated the Controlled Substances Schedules, improved education and awareness efforts for prescribers, and established a safe disposal program for prescription drugs. By the end of 2015, I-STOP had led to a 90 percent decrease in "doctor shopping" - when patients visit multiple prescribers and pharmacies to obtain prescriptions for controlled substances within a three-month time period. Earlier this year, New York State entered into an agreement with New Jersey to share PMP data both ways and prevent "doctor shopping" across state borders. In 2014, the State enacted legislation that granted Good Samaritan protections to individuals who administer an opioid antagonist like naloxone, expanded access to naloxone by allowing nonpatient-specific prescriptions, enacted insurance reforms to improve treatment options for individuals suffering from addiction, directed OASAS to create a wraparound services demonstration program to provide services to adolescents and adults for up to nine months after successful completion of a treatment program, and enhanced penalties to crack down on illegal drug distribution. Despite being on the forefront of nationally-recognized best practices, the epidemic continues to grow in New York. In response, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo convened a team of experienced healthcare providers, policy advocates, educators, parents, and New Yorkers in recovery to serve on a Heroin and Opioid Task Force and develop a comprehensive plan to bring the crisis under control. The Task Force's work was informed by two executive meetings, eight listening sessions across the state, and the 246 comments submitted through www.ny.gov/herointaskforce. This public process resulted in the following recommendations - broken into four areas: prevention, treatment, recovery, and enforcement - to continue to address the crisis.

Details: Albany, NY: The Task Force, 2016. 34p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2016 at; https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/HeroinTaskForceReport_3.pdf

Year: 2016

Country: United States

URL: https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/HeroinTaskForceReport_3.pdf

Shelf Number: 140350

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Enforcement
Drug Treatment
Heroin
Illegal Drugs
Opioids
Prescription Drug Abuse

Author: Dempsey, Orla

Title: Developing and Implementing Models for the Prevalence, Incidence and Geographic Spread of Opiate Use in Ireland

Summary: The objective of this study is to further develop and implement established mathematical models for the first time to the problem of estimating the true size of the opiate epidemic and to develop and apply existing mathematical models to the problem of modelling the geographic spread of opiate use in Ireland. Estimates of the true size and spread of the opiate epidemic are difficult to obtain due to the hidden nature of opiate use however these estimates are vital for policy makers and service providers when planning for the provision of effective treatment services. In a bid to estimate the true size of the epidemic this research focuses on deriving suitable models to estimate the prevalence and incidence of opiate use in Ireland. The back calculation model from AIDS epidemiology is applied to the problem of estimating the hidden, untreated incidence of opiate use. An estimate of the hidden incidence is produced by back calculating from the known treated incidence through an estimated latency period of opiate use. The back calculation model is analytically solved and the solutions obtained are used to produce estimates of the hidden, untreated incidence of opiate use when the exact rate of progression to treatment is unknown. In a bid to produce more accurate incidence estimates data on times from first opiate use to first treatment are obtained. A model for the exact rate of progression to first treatment is determined through fitting Gamma and Weibull probability distributions to data on 5,022 times to treatment for previously untreated opiate users. The exact rate of progression to first treatment along with a range of forms of treated incidence is applied to the back calculation model which is then solved analytically for the first time. The solutions obtained are applied to the problem of estimating the true size of the hidden, untreated population of opiate users who will present for their first treatment in the future. A vast array of techniques to estimate the prevalence of drug and opiate use exist however a new approach which is not heavily data dependent would be beneficial to researchers, policy makers and service providers. An integral equation model to estimate the prevalence of opiate use is derived. The prevalence model derived is based on the models developed for the hidden incidence of opiate use. Estimates of the prevalence of opiate use are produced when the exact rate of progression to treatment is unknown and known. Whilst estimates of the true size of the epidemic are necessary, it is essential to determine where the epidemic will spread in order to determine measures to prevent further spread. A partial differential equation which uses the prevalence estimates produced, is derived to describe the geographic spread of opiate use in Ireland. Techniques to estimate model parameters for the partial differential equation are developed and the hypothetical geographic spread of opiate use from Dublin to Wexford is simulated. Models for the prevalence, incidence and geographic spread of opiate use have been developed. The models derived are not heavily data dependent and could be utilised to produce estimates of any problematic drug use in any specified location providing the necessary data is available.

Details: Dublin: Trinity College, 2011. 180p.

Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed September 21, 2016 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249326915_Developing_and_Implementing_Models_for_the_Prevalence_Incidence_and_Geographic_Spread_of_Opiate_Use_in_Ireland

Year: 2011

Country: Ireland

URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249326915_Developing_and_Implementing_Models_for_the_Prevalence_Incidence_and_Geographic_Spread_of_Opiate_Use_in_Ireland

Shelf Number: 145575

Keywords:
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug Policy
Heroin
Illegal Drugs
Opiates

Author: Mansfield, David

Title: Time to Move on: Developing an Informed Development Response to Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan

Summary: After almost 15 years since the fall of the Taliban, the policy discussion on counter-narcotics remains uncertain of which way to proceed. In large part, this is because policy discussion is shaped by a superficial or misguided understanding of opium poppy and its role in rural livelihoods. This is not surprising given the disconnect that policymakers and the international community in Kabul have from rural realities, in large part due to the inability to get out of Kabul or even their own compounds. Another part is the natural tendency to downplay or even ignore problems which appear to be intractable. Many of the policy proposals reflect past thinking which has not proven successful, most notably the search for a “silver bullet” or one single crop that can compete with opium poppy. This focus is in large part the result of the way in which data and analysis have been presented to policy makers, in particular the annual estimates of opium area and yield presented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) along with its analysis of the reasons why farmers grow opium poppy. The most problematic aspects of that methodology are 1) the analysis of why farmers grow opium poppy, and 2) the assumption of a binary choice between wheat and opium poppy. Additional shortcomings are the limitations of the profit maximization model; drugs “fetishism”; focus on gross rather than net returns; endless search for the "silver bullet" (the single crop) which will replace opium poppy; assumption of a homogenous farmer; flawed survey methodology which relies on single responses and fails to correct for social desirability bias; and, lack of willingness to incorporate the work of others. The analysis in this report is based on fieldwork undertaken in the provinces of Balkh, Helmand, Kandahar and Nangarhar during the harvest and planting seasons of the 2014/15 and 2015/16 agricultural years. The analytical approach is based on the livelihoods framework in which opium poppy is seen as just one crop in a larger, complex system of agricultural commodities, livestock, and off-farm and non-farm income opportunities. More than a decade of fieldwork has allowed the incorporation of the effects of politics and power on farmers' decision-making, as well as questions of varying conditions, especially those that prevail in such vastly different areas as the former desert areas of the southwest. The current approach uses multiple methodologies, including extensive surveys of farmers in the field along with GIS and geo-spatial mapping which assists with research site selection and allows visualization of changes over time in settlements and cropping patterns. Analysis also distinguishes between use of household and hired labour (extremely important in a high-input crop such as opium poppy) and between owner cultivated land and sharecropped land. It reflects variations in fieldwork sites with respect to resources, infrastructure, access to markets and tenure arrangements, so as to capture the diversity in rural Afghanistan. Data collection utilized indirect questions in the field with farmers themselves, thereby avoiding the kind of speculation and bias that interviewing rural elites typically produces. Of course, the usual caveats associated with fieldwork in rural Afghanistan should be kept in mind, and this work should be seen as a "first cut" or "snapshot" that tries to capture conditions within a particular time frame. Fieldwork confirmed that, contrary to conventional wisdom, dramatic change is taking place in Afghanistan's rural economy, as farmers experiment with new varieties, complex cropping systems, and new technology such as chemicals and solar-powered water pumps. In part due to the development of transport and communication infrastructure, rural areas are more and more integrated with urban markets, and off-farm employment has become an increasingly important component of household livelihoods. Not all of this change is positive or sustainable in the long run, especially that which drains aquifers and potentially causes harm to humans, and much of it comes out of a desperate attempt to deal with adversity both agronomic and man-imposed. One of the most striking and consequential transformations is the settling of the former desert areas of south and southwest Afghanistan. The deserts have been made to bloom, although much of the flowering is opium poppy and it is not clear how sustainable life in the former desert will be.

Details: Kabul, Afghanistan: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2016. 82p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 7, 2016 at: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/1623E-Time%20to%20Move%20on-Developing%20an%20Informed%20Development%20Response%20to%20Opium%20Poppy%20Cultivation%20in%20Afghanistan.pdf

Year: 2016

Country: Afghanistan

URL: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/1623E-Time%20to%20Move%20on-Developing%20an%20Informed%20Development%20Response%20to%20Opium%20Poppy%20Cultivation%20in%20Afghanistan.pdf

Shelf Number: 148016

Keywords:
Drugs and Crime
Heroin
Narcotics
Opium Poppy Cultivation
Opium Production

Author: Haysom, Simone

Title: The heroin coast: A political economy along the eastern African seaboard

Summary: This report examines the characteristics of the heroin trade off the East African coast and highlights the criminal governance systems that facilitate drug trafficking along these routes. In recent years, the volume of heroin shipped from Afghanistan along a network of maritime routes in East and southern Africa appears to have increased considerably. Most of this heroin is destined for Western markets, but there is a spin-off trade for local consumption. An integrated regional criminal market has developed, both shaping and shaped by political developments in the region. Africa is now experiencing the sharpest increase in heroin use worldwide and a spectrum of criminal networks and political elites in East and southern Africa are substantially enmeshed in the trade. This report focuses on the characteristics of the heroin trade in the region and how it has become embedded in the societies along this route. It also highlights the features of the criminal governance systems that facilitate drug trafficking along this coastal route.

Details: s.l.: ENACT, 2018. 54p.

Source: Internet Resource: Research Paper, Issue 04 : Accessed July 5, 2018 at: https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2018-07-02-research-paper-heroin-coast.pdf

Year: 2018

Country: Africa

URL: https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2018-07-02-research-paper-heroin-coast.pdf

Shelf Number: 150768

Keywords:
Criminal Networks
Drug Markets
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Illicit Drugs
Organized Crime

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