Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Current State of the World Heroin Markets

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Dual Markets

Abstract

The world heroin market today commands an estimated annual market value of US$55 billion and affects around 12 million people. After a short description of the current state of the world heroin market and its basic properties—maturity, segmentation, and elasticity—this chapter briefly outlines the history of heroin consumption and its regulation over the last 150 years. Historically, most interventions in the heroin market sought to curb its availability and consumption by using either vinegar (incarcerating drug sellers and users) or honey (diverting addicts to treatment). However, there is no conclusive evidence that either way is effective in reducing the number of heroin users and addicts; to a large extent, drugs become popular or fall out of fashion due to the natural history of epidemics and other social and cultural factors. Thus, the traditional drug policy goal of addressing the root cause—reducing the number of heroin users—is largely misplaced. Currently, many scholars conceive of “harm reduction” as an overarching goal of drug policy. As health-oriented harm reduction does not aim to curtail drug use per se but reduce some of its harmful consequences, criminological harm reduction applied to drug-related crime does not aim to prevent violation of drug laws per se but rather to prevent certain harmful consequences of drug use and sales. We then use the influential Goldstein model of drug-related crime to show how harm reduction principles can be applied to heroin-related drug crime.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson, E. (2000). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the Inner City. New York. WW Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, M. (2016). Maintaining order in the drug game: Applying harm reduction principles to drug detective work. Police Practice and Research, 17(4), 306–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, M. H. (2010). Understanding religion and science: Introducing the debate. London: Continuum International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berridge, V. (1984). Drugs and social policy: The establishment of drug control in britain 1900–30. Addiction, 79(4), 17–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourgois, P. (2003). In search of respect: Selling crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyum, D. A., & Kleiman, M. A. (2002). Substance-abuse policy from a crime-control Perspective. crime: public policies for crime control (pp. 331–382). Oakland, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies,

    Google Scholar 

  • Braga, A. A., David, H., & Winship, C. (2008). Losing faith—Police, black churches, and the resurgence of youth violence in Boston. Ohio St. J. Crim. L., 6, 141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braga, A. A., Kennedy, D. M., Waring, E. J., & Morrison Piehl, A. (2001). Problem-oriented policing, deterrence, and youth violence: An evaluation of Boston’s operation ceasefire. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(3), 195–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bretteville-Jensen, A. L. (2006). Drug demand–initiation, continuation and quitting. The Economist, 154(4), 491–516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caulkins, J., & Reuter, P. (2009). Towards a harm-reduction approach to enforcement. Safer Communities, 8(1), 9–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Courtwright, D. T. (1982). Dark paradise: Opiate addiction in America before 1940. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courtwright, D. T. (2001). Forces of habit. Drugs and the making of the modern world. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, R., Wendel, T., Spunt, B., & Jay, J. (2002). We deliver: The gentrification of drug markets on Manhattan’s lower east side: Final report. Rockville, MD: National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drugs and Public Policy Group. (2010). Drug policy and the public good: A summary of the book. Addiction, 105(7), 1137–1145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, P. J. (1985). The drugs/violence nexus: A tripartite conceptual framework. Journal of Drug Issues, 15(4), 493–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenfield, V. A., & Paoli, L. (2012). If supply-oriented drug policy is broken, can harm reduction help fix it? Melding disciplines and methods to advance international drug-control policy. International Journal of Drug Policy, 23(1), 6–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grund, J. P. (1993). Drug use as a social ritual: Functionality, symbolism and determinants of self-regulation. Rotterdam: Instituut voor Verslavingsonderzoek.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrell, A., Cavanagh, S., & Roman, J. (2000). Evaluation of the D.C. Superior drug court interventions programs. National Institute Research in Brief (NCJ 178941). Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawken, A., & Kleiman, M.A.R. (2009). Managing drug involved probationers with swift and certain sanctions: Evaluating Hawaii’s HOPE. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horyniak, D., Stoové, M., Degenhardt, L., Aitken, C., Kerr, T., & Dietze, P. (2015). How do drug market changes affect characteristics of injecting initiation and subsequent patterns of drug use? Findings from a cohort of regular heroin and methamphetamine injectors in Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(1), 43–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Opium Commission. (1910). Report of the international opium commission (excerpts). British Medical Journal, January, 8, 93–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B., Goldstein, P. J., Preble, E., Schmeidler, J., Lipton, D. S., Spunt, B., & Miller, T. (1985). Taking care of business: The economics of crime by heroin users. Mass: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleiman, M. A. R., Caulkins, J. P., Hawken, A., & Kilmer, B. (2012). Eight questions for drug policy research. Issues in Science and Technology, 28(4), 79–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCoun, R. J., & Reuter, P. (2001). Drug war heresies: Learning from other vices, times, and places. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCoun, R. J., Reuter, P., & Schelling, T. (1996). Assessing alternative drug control regimes. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 330–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meylakhs, P. (2009). Drugs and symbolic pollution: The work of cultural logic in the russian press. Cultural Sociology, 3(3), 377–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meylakhs, P., Friedman, S. R., Mateu-Gelabert, P., Sandoval, M., & Meylakhs, N. (2015). Taking care of themselves: How long-term injection drug users remain HIV and Hepatitis C free. Sociology of Health & Illness, 37(4), 626–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Musto, D. F. (1999). The American disease: Origins of narcotic control. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadelmann, E. A. (1989). Drug prohibition in the United States: Costs, consequences, and alternatives. Science (New York, N.Y.), 245(4921), 939–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, R. K. (1989). India and the Anglo-Chinese opium agreements, 1907–14. Modern Asian Studies, 23(3), 525–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordt, C., & Stohler, R. (2006). Incidence of heroin use in Zurich, Switzerland: A treatment case register analysis. The Lancet, 367(9525), 1830–1834.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). (2004). National drug control strategy. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paoli, L., Greenfield, V. A., & Reuter, P. (2009). The world heroin market: Can supply be cut? USA: OUP.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Reuter, P. (2009). Ten years after the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS): Assessing drug problems, policies and reform proposals. Addiction, 104(4), 510–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritter, A. (2006). Studying illicit drug markets: Disciplinary contributions. International Journal of Drug Policy, 17(6), 453–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rush, J. R. (1985). Opium in Java: A Sinister Friend. The Journal of Asian Studies, 44(3), 549–560.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snell, C. (2007). Fort Bend County community supervision and corrections special sanctions court program. Fort Bend County, TX: Unpublished Evaluation Report.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strang, J., Groshkova, T., Uchtenhagen, A., van den Brink, W., Haasen, C., Schechter, M. T., Lintzeris, N., et al. (2015). Heroin on trial: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials of diamorphine-prescribing as treatment for refractory heroin addiction. The British Journal of Psychiatry: the Journal of Mental Science, 207(1), 5–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Global Drug Survey 2015 Findings | Global Drug Survey. (2017). https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/the-global-drug-survey-2015-findings/. Accessed 19 Jan 2017.

  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2010). World drug report 2010. Vienna: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2016). World drug report 2016. Vienna: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, Y. (1999). Anti-drug crusades in twentieth-century China: Nationalism, history, and state building. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy, National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Peter Meylakhs

Authors
  1. Peter Meylakhs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Meylakhs .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Transcrime, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Ernesto U. Savona

  2. Marron Institute of Urban Management, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Mark A.R. Kleiman

  3. Transcrime, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Francesco Calderoni

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Meylakhs, P. (2017). The Current State of the World Heroin Markets. In: Savona, E., Kleiman, M., Calderoni, F. (eds) Dual Markets. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65361-7_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65361-7_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65360-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65361-7

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation