Transcript CJ411-Chat 9

CJ411-Chat 9
By: Amy Ng, ABD
Objectives
• Unit Reminders
• Decriminalization
• Harm reduction
Decriminalization
• Decriminalization refers to the absence of laws
punishing people for using drugs, as is the
case with alcohol and tobacco, drugs
restricted only to those below a certain
chronological age.
Decriminalization
• John Kaplan (1983b: 101) poses a policy question:
‘‘Could we not lower the total social costs of
heroin use and the government response to it by
allowing the drug to be freely and cheaply
available in liquor stores, or as an over-thecounter drug?’’ Such policy would be consistent
with the U.S. approach to other unhealthy habits,
such as cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and
overeating, or the approach to sports such as
mountain climbing, skydiving, bull riding, football,
and boxing
Decriminalization
• Edward Brecher (1972: 528) notes that most
of the harmful aspects of heroin use are the
result of its being illegal: ‘‘Many American
morphine and heroin addicts before 1914 led
long, healthy, respectable, productive lives
despite addiction—and so do a few addicts
today.
Decriminalization
• Pros v. Cons
Decriminalization
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Models:
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1. Dangerous drugs can be dispensed only through government-controlled clinics
or specially licensed medical personnel and only for short-term treatment
purposes; unauthorized sale or possession entails criminal penalties. Long term
maintenance is limited to the use of methadone. This is basically the
approach that is currently used in England.
2. Dangerous drugs can be prescribed by an authorized medical practitioner for
treatment or maintenance; criminal penalties are imposed for sale or possession
outside medical auspices. This is the old British system.
3. Dangerous drugs can be sold and used as tobacco and alcohol products are;
that is, nonprescription use by adults is permitted. This was the case in the
United States before the Harrison Act.
Decriminalization
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Models:
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1. Providing safer options by, for example, making coca tea readily available but
significantly limiting cocaine and severely restricting crack, which, along with
morphine and heroin, would be available only through prescription or licensing
arrangements. There would be no incentives to attract new users.
2. Offering and encouraging safer ingestion. For example, smoking opium would
be readily available, but intravenous drug use would be severely restricted.
3. Permitting cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana and
criminalizing large-scale operations.
4. Banning prodrug advertising—including that for tobacco and alcohol products—
while encouraging education and antidrug advertising, which would be financed
through drug-related tax revenues.
Legalization
• Marijuana in California
Harm Reduction
• Like Switzerland, a number of other European
countries have been exploring a third model of
response to drug abuse: harm reduction. Harm
reduction is offered as an alternative to the supply
reduction strategy—aggressive law enforcement and
pressure on producer nations—and the demand
reduction strategy—treatment and prevention. This
alternative recognizes that while abstinence is
desirable, it is not a realistic goal. Instead, this
approach examines harm from two points of view:
harm to the community and harm to the drug user. The
focus, then, is on lowering the amount of harm to
each.
Harm Reduction
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Principles:
Pargmatism
Humanistic values
Focus on harm
Balancing costs and benefits
Priority of immediate goals
British Harm Reduction Model
• The modern British system involves two barely compatible policies
operating at the same time: a political policy whose focus is on supply
reduction and penal policies in the belief that elimination of drug use is
possible, and a services policy whose focus is on local prevention
campaigns and providing a variety of local services, including needleexchange schemes, advice and counseling services, and a variety of
prescribing options from short-term outpatient detoxification to
• long-term prescribing and rehabilitation. ‘‘At the heart of this approach is
the view that drug use cannot be eliminated, but its most harmful
consequences for the individual, society, and public health can be
moderated’’