Abstract
In democracies, drug policy is shaped by expectations of problems as well as by public preferences and political realities. As public preferences shift, so too will the systems of control. But systems of control have their own costs. There are the costs of maintaining the regulatory system, the costs of the black markets that emerge in response to the regulation, the costs of criminalizing behavior of otherwise law-abiding citizens, and the costs of forgone liberties. Some markets, such as heroin, are entirely prohibited. In contrast, in states that have legalized recreational marijuana in the United States, the focus is on product safety and reducing problem use and youth access, with targeted regulation and taxation. Some harmful substances are permitted under the ordinary regulations that apply to any sort of commerce (such as sugar) or with special regulation and taxes (such as alcohol). The relative social costs and benefits of systems of control are hard to assess, and these calculations are rarely performed. The challenge is in designing a system that does less harm than the harmful behavior it targets.
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Notes
- 1.
In 2012, New York City Mayor Bloomberg proposed a ban on the sales of sugar-added beverages in cups larger than 16 ounces (473 ml). The New York City Board of Health unanimously supported the proposal. Legal battles ensued, going all the way to the New York Court of Appeals, which found in favor of those opposing the ban, so it never went into effect. In 2015, Berkeley, California, was the first city in the United States to implement a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages; the result was a sizable reduction in consumption (Falbe et al. 2016).
- 2.
Credit Suisse released a detailed report on sugar consumption and its consequences in the United States in 2013. By these estimates, the social costs of sugar dwarfed those of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs because of the associated health care costs: they estimated that nearly a third of US health spending (that is, nearly a trillion dollars) is tied to the excessive consumption of sugar.
- 3.
Manufacturing, distributing, and dispensing will trigger trafficking charges, as will possession of more than 100 g of heroin. Individuals with heroin offenses represent about 10% of all cases sentenced under the federal sentencing guidelines. Individuals found to possess less than 100 g of heroin will face possession charges, which carry substantially lower penalties.
- 4.
A first trafficking offense involving 100 g or more of heroin carries a mandatory 5-year minimum (10 years for cases involving more than a kilogram of heroin), and a second offense carries a mandatory 10-year minimum (20 years for cases with more than a kilogram), both with enhancements in the case of serious bodily injury.
- 5.
Sentence enhancements for weapons involvement vary substantially by drug market. Statistically, 30.2% of federal cases involving crack cocaine included an enhancement for weapons, compared with 17.8% for powder cocaine, 18.8% for methamphetamine, 16.8% for heroin, and 9.7% for marijuana (US Sentencing Commission 2016).
- 6.
- 7.
Eligibility for prison alternatives vary, but tends to focus on individuals with nonviolent offenses, and in some cases is restricted to first-time offenses.
- 8.
By November 2016, seven states and the District of Columbia had passed laws permitting the recreational use of marijuana.
- 9.
A useful discussion of “enforcement swamping” is offered by Kleiman and Kilmer (2009).
- 10.
The policy toward prescription opiates is moving in this direction, with reduced prescribing stated as a policy goal.
- 11.
In the United States, binge drinking is generally defined as consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. Heavy drinking is generally defined as consuming five or more drinks during one occasion at least five times during the past 30 days.
- 12.
At the 56th World Health Assembly in 2003, the member states of the World Health Organization unanimously adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This treaty was the first legal instrument with a global reach designed to reduce tobacco-related harm. The treaty requires countries to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship, and promotion; regulate the packaging and labeling of tobacco products; establish protections from exposure to tobacco smoke; strengthen legislation to thwart tobacco smuggling; and promote demand reduction.
- 13.
Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center show that in August/September 2016, 57% of Americans believed marijuana should be legal, compared with only 32% favoring legal marijuana a decade earlier (Geiger 2016).
- 14.
Fatal heroin overdoses have increased in all age, racial, and ethnic groups since 2000, but adults aged 25–44 have the highest death rate (Hedegaard et al. 2015).
- 15.
Marijuana is an exception among illicit substances in its zero risk of lethal overdose. The increasing social acceptability of marijuana may in part be because perceptions of low risk create greater social acceptance.
- 16.
Carl Hart of Columbia University (who served on an advisory board to NIDA) has been an especially vocal critic on this topic, including in testimony to Congress.
- 17.
The White House announced President Obama’s Data Driven Justice Initiative on June 30, 2016. Before President Trump took office in 2017, key members of the DDJ team left the federal government. The DDJ effort persists (and is growing), but now with the support of philanthropies.
- 18.
Seattle was the first city to announce the opening of a safe injection facility (SIF). Several other cities are considering similar responses, including Ithaca, Buffalo, Boston, and Philadelphia.
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Hawken, A. (2017). Comparing Policies Across US Drug Markets. In: Savona, E., Kleiman, M., Calderoni, F. (eds) Dual Markets. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65361-7_11
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