Drug Policy Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Drug policy covers an extensive range of governments’ responses to the problem of illegal drugs. This entry will identify the drugs in question, explain the origins of national drug policy, examine the development of international drug policy, and identify the range of policies employed. As illegal drug cultivation, production, and consumption can occur on different continents, international cooperation took hold in the twentieth century to curb supply and disrupt movement of drugs to market.

Drug Use And Regulation

Drug is a generic term. It is used to describe over-the-counter remedies, like aspirin; prescription medicines, like antibiotics; and psychoactive substances that effect our moods and perceptions; these may be unregulated, like coffee; regulated, like alcohol; or prohibited, like heroin. It is this last group that forms the subject matter here. These drugs are prohibited by three United Nations (UN) conventions: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, covering opium and its derivatives, coca and its derivatives, and cannabis; the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, covering amphetamine-type stimulants (ATSs) such as ecstasy; and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances.

Drugs transform human behavior, and this attracts the attention of authority. Since time immemorial, authorities, both secular and sacred, have tried to control and restrict the use of drugs. Use of indigenous drugs has tended to be tolerated and regulated. Alcohol, for instance, is easily produced from fermented grain and fruit, and its use has been widely accepted in Europe, although since the seventeenth century it has been increasingly regulated. But when tobacco was brought to Europe, it was regarded as threatening and was prohibited. In many countries today, morality reinforces state drug prohibition: Drugs are bad; they corrupt the individual and threaten the security of the state and stability of society. In other countries, drug use is regarded as an ordinary consequence of human nature but one that creates problems. These positions are not mutually exclusive, but they do reinforce two different drug policies: One emphasizes the wickedness and punishment of users and dealers, and the other emphasizes minimizing the social harm caused by drugs.

International Drug Policy

International drug policy developed in the twentieth century. The United States played a leading role in persuading other countries to adopt a prohibition regime. It began at the Shanghai Conference in 1909 and now incorporates the comprehensive UN Conventions. Drug policy was internationalized, because the drug trade is international in scope. Colombia, for example, produces 62 percent of the world’s cocaine.

There is a market for prohibited drugs just as there is for any legal product. Markets operate on the basis of supply and demand. The aim of international drug policy is to free the world from drugs, largely by intervening in the market. Domestic drug policy focuses on the demand side. Governments use education to persuade people not to try drugs and often provide treatment for addicts. These policies are reinforced by deterrence: the prosecution and punishment of those who continue to use drugs and who turn to acquisitive crime to support their habits.

International drug policy works primarily on the supply side. It attempts to reduce supply so that prices will rise to a point where users stop buying. It employs a whole repertoire of policy instruments to prevent the cultivation, manufacture, trafficking, and dealing of drugs. In principle, this approach has a lot to recommend it. Drugs are much more visible in the fields than on the street. Crop eradication, for example, persuading or coercing farmers not to grow coca or opium, is the favored policy. Eradication will have only a temporary effect if farmers have no source of alternative income and if drug barons continue to bribe and intimidate the farmers back into drug cultivation. Eradication is, therefore, often combined with alternative development, whereby farmers receive subsidies to encourage them to grow legal crops. These policies are reinforced by interdiction, which is used against all kinds of drugs, including ATSs. Interdiction covers a range of activities designed to keep drugs from reaching the market, including destruction of processing plants, the prosecution and imprisonment of drug barons, and seizure of drugs at state borders. Drugs that do get through borders may still be incepted at street level. Long prison sentences and seizure of assets are designed to deter both traffickers and dealers.

Drug policy involves the cooperation of different countries’ governments with the international community to reduce drug trafficking through the use of market forces backed up by the full force of state coercion and moral persuasion. Drug policy remains high on the domestic and international political agendas. The Mexican government is confronting a wave of violence in response to its determination to curb its drug cartels, while Afghanistan struggles with the Taliban insurgency, largely funded by the illegal opium crop.

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