Research evidence on current drug crime policies

Drug Crime

Does research evidence suggest that current policies on drugs and crime are still appropriate?

While "tough" policies designed to curb drug use and distribution are attractive politically, and look good on paper, research shows that such policies are no longer appropriate. Instead of responding to drug use as a public health problem, governments like that of the United States and the United Kingdom still regards criminalization as "the sine qua non-of responsible policy-making," (Downes and Morgan, 2007, p. 212). Unfortunately, the criminalization approach happens to also be irresponsible policy making based on emotion rather than fact. Governments with criminalization policies like the United States and Great Britain show a disturbing "state of denial" about the way criminalization creates and enhances organized crime, and may have even exacerbated some types of substance abuse (Downes and Morgan, 2007, p. 212).

Drug use patterns have also changed dramatically, requiring an intelligent shift in public policy. There has been a pattern of "normalization" associated with illicit drug use of most types (South 2007, p. 815). The normalization of drug use suggests that a criminological policy is failing to inject the type of normative change needed to prevent drug problems. Instead, criminological policies are having little to no effect on drug use patterns or social norms. It is even possible that the criminalization of drugs has made access to legitimate mental health services like addiction counseling more difficult. If access to mental health services is stigmatized or otherwise stymied due to the criminalization of drugs, then drug users are not being served well by the current political policies.

Clearly a new approach to drug policy is warranted. Yet decades of prohibition of certain classes of drugs has proliferated black market enterprises, which are themselves problematic and criminogenic. The drugs themselves are no longer the problem; cartels and their patterns of weapon trafficking, human trafficking, and other issues are not the "victimless crimes" like drug abuse. Organized crime can also be considered a facet of domestic and international security. Like terrorist networks, organized crime syndicates are transnational and threaten to undermine efforts at border, immigration, and customs control.

The criminological policies related to drugs may need to be seriously reconsidered in light of the different sort of "tiers" of drug use patterns. Research also points out the glaring contradictions between laws related to alcohol and tobacco; versus laws related to other drugs such as heroin, cannabis, and cocaine. Given the fact that even prescription pharmaceuticals and solvents are misused, criminalizing drugs is not preventing crime or keeping the public safer or healthier. South (2007) points out that "undoubtedly…alcohol remains the most widely used and misused" of all drugs and it remains legal (811).

When reconsidering criminal policies related to drugs, it is necessary to distinguish between the effects from misuse of drugs and the effects from organized crime-controlled drug trafficking. Organized crime syndicates engage in criminal behaviors that are independent from and ancillary to drug trafficking. These are the target behaviors that can be more readily criminalized than drugs. If drugs were legalized, organized crime syndicates would lose a considerable amount of revenue but they are already highly diversified organizations that require law enforcement.

A dismantling of current drug policies would make it so that supplies of popular drugs were made safe and regulated. The problems associated with drug abuse could be tackled at the level of healthcare, rather than criminology. Funding for law enforcement would be freed up and diverted towards actual criminal issues: ranging from white-collar crime to rape. As South (2007) points out, "although most public and political attention tends to focus on illegal drugs as a source of social problems, this should not overshadow the significance of problems associated with legal drugs," (p. 811). Alcohol has been especially problematic in terms of public health and public safety; alcohol is also implicated in crimes as diverse as DUI and robbery.

It is therefore easy and correct to compare current drug policies with the attempt to outlaw the production and distribution of alcohol during the early 20th century. Current drug policies closely resemble such failed alcohol prohibition policies: the prohibition of alcohol was a policy that miserably failed in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. If the criminalization of drugs is also failing, then it is time to rethink criminal policies related to drugs. Legal and illegal drugs are both widely available; the main difference is the channels by which they are distributed and purchased by the end user. A criminalization policy does little to reduce actual, measurable, supply or substance abuse patterns (South 2007).