5 - Responding to drugs: prevention, treatment, and supply control

Interventions on drugs

Law and regulations

Law enforcement/supply control - arresting

Preventing drug use

Health and social services for drug users

Supply side interventions - law enforcement

Refers to all categories of selling - growers, smugglers, high-level dealers, mid-level dealers, retailers

Theories for criminalisation of drug use or possession

Deterrence - general and specific

Incapacitation

Rehabilitation

Deterrence

Specific - deterrence on the particular person subject to punishment

General - the broader effect on wider society

e.g. the impact on a drug user who is imprisoned and impact on their friends

Incapacitation

Aim is to remove or reduce the number of people looking for drugs and the way to do so is through imprisonment

Theory is that imprisoning users will reduce demand

Rehabilitation

Assumes that imprisoning people means they will not be able to access drugs and will therefore be rehabilitated

However drugs can be sourced/accessed in prison so this may not be the case

Drug deaths in Portugal

A serious decline is one of the most impactful results from their system of decriminalisation

Could be due to access to treatment and reduced stigma

Decriminalisation impacts on consumption

Prevalence of consumption in Portugal is in line with Europe/a little lower - suggests decriminalisation/removal of criminal sanctions does not increase use

Supply side interventions

Work on the assumption that more risks = higher price = lower consumption

i.e. arresting drug dealers targets the supply side of drugs and increases risks

Risk and price model - Reuter and Kleinman (1986)

Conventional costs for production, manufacturing, etc are low so high prices are to compensate for risk

Elasticity of demand

Common misconception that drugs are addictive so users will consume regardless of price - assumes demand is inelastic

However users are responsive to changes in prince

Source-country control

Interventions aimed at the production of drugs - growers

Starting at the top

Examples of source-country control

Eradication, alternative development, precursor control, in-country enforcement

Eradication

Removing/killing the plant used to make the drugs

e.g. aerial spraying in Colombia and Mexico or ground-based operations

Alternative development

Deter farmers from growing drugs by providing economic incentives to grow other crops

e.g. Afghan farmers given financial benefits to not grow opium

Issues with alternative development

A less brutal approach than eradication but is relatively short-term term and not all farmers will agree

Subsidised money will have to stop and farmers will return to more profitable drugs growing

Precursor control

Precursors are the chemicals used to make some drugs

Idea is to control purchase and supply of such chemicals as a way to target source of drug production

In-country enforcement

Providing training to, for example, police and law enforcement

The Taliban cut-back

In 2001 Taliban started to enforce harshly against opium production leading to 95% decrease in production for a year

Interdiction - prohibiting/forbidding

Have to intercept thousands of flights and shipments of drugs but this can be very challenging given the amount of international travel

Adaptations from traffickers to interdiction

Shifts in routes - geographical displacement

Modes of transportation - tactical

Techniques for hiding - tactical

High-level enforcement

Arresting and punishing major drug traffickers

Common belief that this is more effective than arresting street pushers but is that the case?

Retail enforcement

Action against those selling to the consumer

Two approaches from the retail market - covert/closed and brazen/open

Covert/closed retail market

E.g. selling from the dealer's house through direct contact with said dealer

Number of people who have access to the market is smaller and in theory more secure

Approach to minimise risk of arrest due to the minimisation of visibility

Brazen/open market

E.g. selling on the street, in public places - open to anyone to buy and sell drugs

There is minimal risk for each actor in the open market as there are so many participants in the open market

More risky however due to more exposure

Output versus outcome - retail enforcement

Enforcement will often focus on output - how many arrests, how much seized

Focus however should be on outcome - has drug consumption been impacted, impacts to price

Crackdown versus containment

Crackdown is the tough approach focused on complete eradication of the market

Containment of the market looks to deal with the externalities - do not want eradication but reduction of violence

Displacement

Should always expect various players (buyers, sellers, growers, etc) to adapt

Prevention

Risk factors - more likely to use

Protective factors - less likely to use

Primary interventions

Prevent drug use before it even starts

Target risk factors and increase protective to reduce number of drug users

These are cheap but not very effective

Secondary interventions

Avoid escalating regular drug use

More targeted but issues of stigmatisation

Prevention examples from schools

Resistance skills - saying no

Unbiased info on drugs

Good behaviour game - incentivising good behaviour

Health and social services for drug users

Services designed to change the behaviours of users, with the aim of benefitting them

Aims of health/social services

Abstinence of drug use

Reducing amount/frequency of sue

Changing behaviours - this is most of the cases

Detox versus treatment

Detox normally lasts for a few days immediately after stopping use

Treatment is a much longer process which can last years/an entire lifetime