Pathways of Addiction Opportunities in Drug Abuse Research (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
10. Drug Control
10. Drug Control
Pages 250-276
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 250... ...
In the committee's view, however, the effects of legal controls, and of different strategies for implementing and enforcing them, should be seen as an important component of a comprehensive drug abuse research strategy. Conceived broadly, policy-relevant effects encompass all the benefits of legal controls (in reducing use, abuse, and dependence on illicit drugs and the associated adverse consequences)
|
From page 251... ...
are often intertwined with the sequelae of illicit drug markets and drug law enforcement. An important trend in public health research is the inclusion of legal controls and interventions within a single model of drug abuse research.
|
From page 252... ...
. "Noisy data" on the epidemiology of illicit drug use and on the effects of drug control policies may be superior to anecdotes, but opportunities for significant advances in knowledge based on cross-national research will have to await improvements in data systems and in the
|
From page 253... ...
The proper balance between therapeutic discretion and law enforcement efforts to suppress drug abuse and minimize diversion has been a source of continuing controversy (IOM, 1995b)
|
From page 254... ...
In 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse recommended that criminal sanctions for possession of marijuana for personal use be repealed. The commission concluded that sporadic enforcement of criminal penalties for marijuana use did not achieve a substantial preventive effect and that whatever preventive effect such enforcement did achieve was outweighed by the social and individual costs of enforcing the prohibition.
|
From page 255... ...
Strategies of Enforcement Not surprisingly, criminal justice specialists have often disagreed about the relative utility of various strategies employed to suppress the availability of illicit drugs. These strategies include an international effort to eradicate naturally growing sources of illicit drugs; interdiction of shipments intended for the U.S.
|
From page 256... ...
However, substantial resources have been allocated to the apprehension, prosecution, and incarceration of drug offenders, often at the expense of other potentially useful interventions, particularly treatment. For this reason, it is important to assess the behavioral effects of various types of criminal punishment in reducing drug abuse and dependence.
|
From page 257... ...
Although enacted in an effort to curtail drug abuse, its legislative history makes it clear that CSA was not intended to interfere either with medical practice or with the availability of controlled substances for legitimate medical or scientific use. However, that has not been an easy balance to strike.
|
From page 258... ...
Very little systematic research has been conducted on the actual effects of specific regulations or enforcement practices on either illicit drug use or medical use. To begin examining these issues, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
|
From page 259... ...
. The primary goal of supply-reduction efforts is to decrease the availability and increase the cost of obtaining illicit drugs and thereby reduce their consumption and associated adverse consequences.
|
From page 260... ...
Due to the nature of illicit drug markets, the availability of drugs may be reduced more often by uncertainty than by actual physical scarcity. Dealer inventories and the presence of many suppliers in the market make it possible, albeit less convenient, to acquire drugs even when import, wholesale, or retail markets have been temporarily disrupted.3 Existing evidence is mixed as to whether specific enforcement-generated changes in the availability and cost of illicit drugs reduce consumption.
|
From page 261... ...
Thus, research on advancing an understanding of the effects of supply reduction on drug consumption would allow for more focused strategies by law enforcement agencies. The committee encourages the Department of Justice to support research to determine the relationships between changes in the ac cessibility and price of illicit drugs and changes in consumption, and to develop adequate measures for assessing the impact of vari ous supply-reduction strategies on the accessibility and price of illicit drugs.
|
From page 262... ...
. Many states followed suit; by 1990, laws in nearly every state and the federal sentencing guidelines had been amended to prescribe mandatory sentences for specific drug offenses.5 The most severe penalties were prescribed for offenses and offenders involved in crack cocaine (Belenko, 1993; Fagan, 1995; Tonry, 1995; U.S.
|
From page 263... ...
The deterrent effect of criminal sanctions on drug dealing is bound up with the more general issues, addressed earlier in this chapter, regarding the effects of supply reduction on consumption. The existing body of research raises substantial doubts about the deterrent and incapacitative effects of heightened punishment on retail drug dealing during the 1980s.
|
From page 264... ...
This is followed by consideration of the use of threatened sanctions for therapeutic leverage: To what extent does criminal justice control facilitate successful treatment interventions? 7 General Deterrence Efforts to test the general deterrent effects of criminal sanctions on drug use have been limited in several ways.
|
From page 265... ...
Finally, most empirical studies on the general deterrent effects of law and social control have proceeded on a separate track from studies on the specific deterrent effects of punishment experiences. This bifurcation of the empirical literature has led some researchers to suggest a revised, "perceptual deterrence" framework that incorporates both direct (arrests, incarceration)
|
From page 266... ...
. In 1973, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that the primary utility of criminal sanctions for consumption-related drug offenses lies in their use as means of therapeutic leverage (NCMDA, 1973)
|
From page 267... ...
Future research regarding the effects of coerced treatment for drug abuse should compare outcomes (drug use and criminal behavior) for treatment groups under criminal justice supervision with the behavior of groups of matched offenders subjected to similar criminal justice supervision without treatment and of matched drug treatment clients who are not under criminal justice supervision.
|
From page 268... ...
The committee recommends a strategic research initiative to deter mine the conditions under which threatened criminal sanctions deter drug use and the ways in which criminal sanctions can be used most effectively, in the context of other social controls and in conjunction with other initiatives such as treatment programs, to maximize their beneficial effects while minimizing their deleteri ous effects. CONFIDENTIALITY AND FEAR OF PUNISHMENT In 1972, in response to the increasing incidence of drug abuse in the United States, Congress passed the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1972 (86 U.S.
|
From page 269... ...
There also has been an increasing trend toward imposing criminal sanctions on women who use drugs while pregnant. Proponents of these requirements and sanctions argue that such measures will deter women from using drugs while they are pregnant and will prompt pregnant drug abusers to seek drug treatment.
|
From page 270... ...
Its aim is simply to include the public health effects of drug control within the field of drug abuse research and, thereby, to strengthen the empirical foundation of drug policymaking. The committee recognizes that drug policy debate has become highly polarized.
|
From page 271... ...
The committee encourages NIDA, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) , and other public and private sponsors of drug abuse research to incorporate policy-relevant studies of drug control within a com prehensive scientific agenda.
|
From page 272... ...
1994. Do criminal sanctions deter drug offenders.
|
From page 273... ...
1990. Drug abuse in the inner city: Impact on hard-drug users and the community.
|
From page 274... ...
1992. The Neighborhood Effects of Street-Level Drug Enforcement: Tactical Narcotics Teams in New York.
|
From page 275... ...
1991. Consequences of the 1989 New York State benzodiazepine prescription regulations.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.