Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-29-12

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 9-29-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3945

Question of the Week: As a multiple part series on drug control models, the question for this week asks, What is drug decriminialization?

In the last segment, it was noted that decriminalization is often confused with depenalization. They are similar because they reduce the reliance on incarceration in drug control, but they differ according to the involvement of the criminal justice system.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy confirmed that,

“decriminalisation is the elimination of a conduct or activity from the sphere of criminal law, while depenalisation is simply the relaxation of the penal sanction provided for by law.”

In its 2005 report, the King County Bar Association cited Canadian drug policy expert Mark Haden’s definition of decriminalization as,

“The removal of criminal sanctions for personal use only. This does not provide for legal options for how to obtain drugs, so there is still unregulated access to drugs of unknown purity and potency.”

Haden went to define “defacto decriminalization” as,

“Collectively agreeing to ignore existing laws without changing them. For many years the Netherlands have maintained the laws prohibiting the possession and sale of marijuana while allowing both of these in practice.”

In 2001, Portugal successfully adopted a system whereby offenses involving the consumption, acquisition and possession of drugs for personal use are referred to a commission instead of the criminal justice system. Recently, Rhode Island made possession of up to one ounce of marijuana a civil violation.

Still, scholars with the Rand Corporation asserted that decriminalization

“is not a distinct drug control model … but rather, a form of low severity prohibition.”

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 8-19-12

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 8-19-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3945

Question of the Week: As a multiple part series on drug control models, the question for this week asks, What is drug depenalization?

Depenalization is often confused with decriminalization. In fact, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, depenalization in Spanish

“often refers to what in English is most often called decriminalization.”

The Global Commission describes depenalization as

“the relaxation of the penal sanction provided for by law,” and the “elimination or reduction of custodial penalties, although the conduct or activity remains a criminal offence.”

A 2011 report from the World Bank quotes Glenn Greenwald’s definition of depenalization as a drug control model in which,

“drug usage remains a criminal offense, but imprisonment is no longer imposed for possession or usage even as other criminal sanctions (e.g., fines, police record, probation) remain available.”

A 2002 Canadian Journal of Public Health article stated that under depenalization,

“Penalties for possession are significantly reduced and would include discharges, diversion to treatment instead of jail for possession of large amounts and trafficking, and “parking ticket” status for possession of small amounts for personal consumption.” But under this regulatory model, “The black market for heroin and cocaine is created and maintained.”

The World Bank says that,

“depenalization, has been applied to marijuana in 12 (now 13) U.S. states, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and parts of Australia.”

But that,

“There is no obvious channel by which [it] would reduce the much larger problem of systemic violence associated with drug trafficking.”

Hence, while drug depenalization reduces drug penalties, it does nothing to end the drug war.

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 7-30-12

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 7-30-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3945

Question of the Week: As a multiple part series on drug control models, the question for this week asks, What is prohibition?

The King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project in 2005 termed a “strict prohibition model” as one in which,

“proscribed drugs and their use are subject to control by the criminal justice system and only complete abstinence is permissible under the law.”

A 2006 article in the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics preferred the term “Punitive drug prohibition,” which referred to,

“policies that rely on penal sanctions (incarceration) to punish those who use ‘illicit” drugs,’”

The article went on to agree that,

“The basic assumption of punitive drug prohibition is that it is possible to attain a society free from illegal drug use.”

The primary objective of prohibition as a drug control model is therefore “use reduction” or “prevalence reduction.” According to the KCBA,

“…the eventual goal [is] eliminating all illegal drug use. The possession of “soft” drugs, such as marijuana, is either a criminal or a serious civil offense and possession of “hard” drugs, such as heroin or cocaine, is always a criminal offense. Distribution and manufacturing are always punished even more severely.”

But prohibition hasn’t worked. The famed Global Commission on Drug Policy acknowledged that prohibition as a drug control system has,

“degenerated into a war on users, farmers and petty traders. The excessive negative consequences and negligible effectiveness have now been broadly acknowledged and a process of de-escalation is in full motion in many places.”

 

Drug Policy Question of the Week – 7-25-12

As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 7-25-12. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3945

Question of the Week: What are drug control models?

The abstract of a 1996 article that appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management began,

“The debate over alternative regimes for currently illicit psychoactive substances focus on polar alternatives: harsh prohibition and sweeping legalization.”

Indeed, according to a Thomas Jefferson School of Law article,

“The central principle of [U.S.] drug war strategy has been that vigorous enforcement of increasingly strict criminal laws, though expensive, is necessary to reduce drug abuse and related problems.”

However, the article goes on to note,

“… that the overwhelming public support for ever-more punitive drug policies during the 1980s and early 1990s has disappeared and we now see substantial majorities in favor of reform measures. … voters have generally embraced proposals to move state and local drug policies away from the drug war strategy.”

But what are these alternative proposals and strategies?

As noted by the Global Commission on Drug Policies,

“There is much confusion in the literature and public debate about the terms decriminalisation, depenalisation, legalisation and regulation. Universally accepted definitions do not exist and interpretations frequently vary even within the same language.”

Canadian researcher Mark Haden stated in a 2004 article in the International Journal of Drug Policy,

“We need to ask new questions. The question “how do we stop drug use?” is not as useful as the question “how do we regulate the market for drugs in a way which increases social cohesion and minimises harms?”

The next few Drug War Facts segments will focus on reviewing the spectrum of options available as drug control models that will hopefully answer this question.