Contemporary Drug Policy Within The Uk

For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.

Since 1941 there has been a major surge in drug dealing through proof of arrest rates. This is pretty clear since the amount of arrests has increased by a monumental 50% since then. Statistics show the escalation of arrests from1941-1990. From 1941-1950 there were 0.3 arrests; 1951-1960 0.7%; 1961-1970 7.9%; 1971-1980 36.9% and from 1981-1990 54.2%. Today, nineteen years later, these arrest rates

While many drugs enjoyed a period of legalization, eventually most drugs have come to find a place as a scapegoat for many of society’s ills, from poverty, unemployment and homelessness, to rape, murder, and reasons to discriminate certain races based on a stereotypical link to a certain drug. (Steiker, C. S., 2011) At one time even alcohol was a major scapegoat for societal problems, but its strong history and presence in Euro-ethnic culture made

Drug abuse and substance use have been categorized as a major reason for increased crime and rebellion amongst citizenly. Women, children and unemployed middle aged individuals experience increased crime rate as they are considered less contributors to general economic decisions. These include the inaccessibility of social amenities, lack of security and likely a surge in desperation to engage in misconducts that attract forceful interventions from existing

According to Barbor et al(2010), it explains that there are 5 different types of interentions and strategies relevant to drug policy. And one of the main strategies that our society strongly focused on are laws and regulations and punitive(Barbor et al., 2010, pg. 101). Currently, Canada’s regulation places marijuana strictly illegal. Canada introduced the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in 1995 to strictly criminalize possession and trafficking marijuana(Best Advice, 1997, pg. 2). Our current legislation of the Controlled Drgus and Substances Act possess some flexibility in terms of punishing drug users. First-time possession of marijuana under 30 grams is punishable with summary conviction of 1000 dollars fine or six months of imprisonment. For non-first time possession or possession over 30 grams is dealt more seriously. Possession for the purpose of trafficking, production and import or export of marijuana can be punishable by a maximum penalty of life imprsionment(Best

There needs to be a change in the criminal justice system. Convicted felons who are charged with any drug felony should not be put into jail or prison because it doesn’t help solve the problem. Rudy Haapanen states, “It is now generally agreed that the criminal justice system fails to rehabilitate offenders, to make them less likely to commit criminal acts as a result of treatment or training; that the system fails to deter potential offenders, to make then less likely to commit criminal acts out of fear of penal sanctions”. In this paper I will discuss drug use in the population, drug dealers, drugs and regulations. I will discuss drug use in the population so that you will see

Each year, the President of the United States releases an updated version of the National Drug Control Strategy. The latest edition, from July of 2014, introduces a number of changes from previous years. The most important aspects of President Obama’s drug policy includes accepting those who do drugs as individuals who need help, and are the victim of a disease, rather than as criminals who are intentionally being menaces to society. This approach is very progressive, as there is a tradition in America to penalize those who have drug charges as though they are criminals, all while many people agree that money should be saved in this area. The idea that drug use is a victimless crime (of course, with the exception of violent drug-related crimes,

Hypothesis I: Drug Use Can Cause Crime Different studies have shown that the relationship between criminal behavior and drug use. Most of the evidence does reveal that drug users are more prone to engage in illegal conduct. For example, pharmacological violence involves the effect of a drug having a direct physiological influence on a perpetrator engaging or committing an act of violence. The consequence is that a particular substance triggered violent conduct as a result of the material is accessible in their system. Furthermore, this evidence has also shown that psychoactive stimulants like methamphetamine, cocaine, or the hallucinogen PCP can trigger an on-edge state of mind as well as social paranoia that can potentially result in violent behavior for individuals using drugs (Levinthal, 2012).

This leads to an increase in criminal activity such as neglect of familial duties, robberies to fund their dependency, and violence to defend their habits. The ‘drugee’ becomes a nuisance to society. Some become homeless and exhibit poor health habits such as malnutrition and tooth decay. Other negative effects include the transference of diseases because of needle sharing. Though drug use is a personal choice, the effects on the rest of society are undeniable. The best intentions are formulated on a personal level, but this is overcastted by its negative effects. This argument, however, is a bit one-sided because the reason for using and dependency varies between users.

A lot of people link drug abuse with crime, at times even with violent crime. This association comes from psychopharmacological association that imply that people may engage in criminal acts after taking some kind of substance known to undermine their judgment as well as self-control result in paranoid thoughts and distortion of inhibitions (Sewell, Poling and Sofuoglu, 189). Though all substances that affect the central nervous system might result in this kind of relationships, scientific information indicates that some type of drugs have a more strong effect than others. Such drugs are alcohol, cocaine, phencyclidine and amphetamines (McCauley, Ruggiero, Resnick and Kilpatrick, 136). Inversely, cannabis and heroin are less associated with desire to commit

For as long as we have been a nation there have been criminal elements. Criminal elements are nothing new and often time’s criminal behavior is part and parcel with substance abuse. When people think of substance abuse the images that come to mind are often the work of fiction and have little to no resemblance to what the individual users adheres to. Meriam Webster’s defines substance abuse as a noun, “Overindulgence in our dependence on an addictive substance, esp. alcohol or drugs “(Merriam). Being a criminology major, I often ask myself why? Why do people gravitate towards substances and why individuals chose to follow the addictive path? Once we determine the why we can do what we criminologist do best, formulate a theory. I think understanding the societal factors of substance abuse and the correlation you can make between certain recurring themes will help better determine what pressures are in place that could influence ones’ decision making either way. The thing with criminology theory and especially socio-construct theory is that almost all areas have been covered, not trying to re-invent the wheel, but taking a different approach will still help better understand the issues at hand. The research will try to look at, what has been done and what those results show as well as what needs to be done moving forward.

There has always been a close association between drugs and crime. Drugs have been seen as a way out of suffering in one’s life and so as long as there is suffering there will always be a market for drugs. The struggle to keep one’s self sane when away from a substance they need can cause them to do crazy and even violent things to others. Things like murdering someone because they did not have proper control of themselves is not something unheard of by any means. These people can been seen as both victims and criminals, as they were not in a sound state of mind when doing these actions, however them doing the actions does not mean they should get off scot-free. The users are only one side of the coin, the other is the drug dealers. The dealers do not have to be selling purely illegal drugs, they may be selling prescription drugs too, but in the pursuit of their own survival in a struggling life, they turn to selling substances to others. By doing so they can even amass a fortune, but this is still a crime, and what people will do to try to get all this potential money can span from robbing to murder. The articles I read from different media support the fact there is indeed a tie with crime and drugs, being that an increase of drugs on the street leads to more crime.

Drug abuse and predatory criminality go hand in hand in a few, select social groups, while in others, drug abuse most often occurs without criminal behavior (other than the fact they’re doing drugs.) Despite what most might think, drug abuse typically follows predatory criminality. As drug abusers keep trying harder drugs due to necessity, the intensity of their criminal behavior escalates dramatically. When using more than one type of drug at one time, studies show that the frequency of criminal activity increases. But, when these drug offenders decrease the amount of drugs they put in their system, their rate of criminal activity also decreases, which shows that drugs can cause a person to commit crime. This shows that drug usage can cause crime and stopping drug usage can slow or even halt criminal activity.

In order to review the advantages and disadvantages of technocratic governance, this paper will be drawing on the policy developments in the fields of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) regulation in the European Union (EU) and UK drug policies. The paper aims to review how policy developments in these areas are approached technocraticaly and whether this approach is effective. With regards to GMOs, the specific type of technocratic governance that this paper will look at is comitology. This is the use of a committee of scientists, field experts and representatives of European nation states making decisions based on expert opinions, regardless of what the evidence and the data gathered shows, although, the European commission ultimately has the final say over policies to be implemented across Europe. However, this might be out of necessity as the different nation states generally cannot agree on GMO policies. This paper will also look at the UK drug policies, and how experts are asked to report on their views on how to establish a less damaging drug regime. The paper will argue that the current approach to drug use in the UK is an out-dated and unrealistic form of regulation. To do this, it will look at statistical evidence of drug related crimes or the risks in relation to some other activities that are legal, as per the research gathered by the Home Office. This paper will look at both the benefits and the disadvantages of technocratic governance in the context of the

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.