It is already commonly known that illicit drugs can be harmful to users and profitable to the criminals who sell them, so why not simply stop drug trafficking by strictly enforcing the law?
The US-led ‘war on drugs’, which promotes strict supply reduction at the expense of demand and harm minimization, has failed (just like its antecedent, the prohibition against alcohol in the US in 1930s). Aggressively prohibitive policies have resulted in increases in the quantities trafficked, reductions in their prices and increases in their potency.
Other countries with draconian drug policies emphasizing punitive measures including death penalties operate in a number of South East Asian nations but these too continue to have drug problems. As an exception, Sweden’s approach which promotes a drug-free society and total rejection of drugs seems to have better results but Sweden is an outlier in many of its practices.
As a response to the failures of the ‘war on drugs’, some countries have tried more liberal approaches through increased focus on demand reduction and harm minimization measures including the decriminalization of some or all illicit drugs, as Portugal did in 2001. The results of these policies have been mixed but, interestingly and contrary to critics’ expectations, general drug use in Portugal has not increased significantly since 2001. Again, this proves that the context is important.
An emerging but controversial issue is the call for the relaxation of the laws on the so-called soft drugs such as marihuana.
Source: "Starting the drug trafficking debate in Argentina." Carnegie Mellon University Australia, May 2013. It is contributed by 12 Master of Science in Public Policy and Management students, including myself.
The US-led ‘war on drugs’, which promotes strict supply reduction at the expense of demand and harm minimization, has failed (just like its antecedent, the prohibition against alcohol in the US in 1930s). Aggressively prohibitive policies have resulted in increases in the quantities trafficked, reductions in their prices and increases in their potency.
Other countries with draconian drug policies emphasizing punitive measures including death penalties operate in a number of South East Asian nations but these too continue to have drug problems. As an exception, Sweden’s approach which promotes a drug-free society and total rejection of drugs seems to have better results but Sweden is an outlier in many of its practices.
As a response to the failures of the ‘war on drugs’, some countries have tried more liberal approaches through increased focus on demand reduction and harm minimization measures including the decriminalization of some or all illicit drugs, as Portugal did in 2001. The results of these policies have been mixed but, interestingly and contrary to critics’ expectations, general drug use in Portugal has not increased significantly since 2001. Again, this proves that the context is important.
An emerging but controversial issue is the call for the relaxation of the laws on the so-called soft drugs such as marihuana.
Source: "Starting the drug trafficking debate in Argentina." Carnegie Mellon University Australia, May 2013. It is contributed by 12 Master of Science in Public Policy and Management students, including myself.
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