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Cannabis liberalization is a fascinating case study in moral-legal re-negotiation. From broad international examples of decriminalization to specific local legalization models, numerous criminological questions are emerging. This paper describes three significant challenges for cannabis liberalization. These include persistent inequalities associated with policing cannabis, the invisibility of coercive care and control within diversion, and the hazards associated with illusory policy reform. We present Cannabis Criminology as a multidisciplinary effort to understand the prohibition, decriminalization, legalization, and nascent regulation of cannabis in ways that acknowledge but transcend law-based paradigms. Consistent with criminology's multiple and sometimes contradictory dimensions, we outline five thematic areas that can inform the study of cannabis. These include law, society, and social control, police and policing cannabis, race, ethnicity and intrusion, the economics of cannabis use, and cannabis and criminal behavior. Finally, we conclude that privileging the views of people who use cannabis can provoke more inclusive, participatory, and otherwise imaginative efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian government recently sanctioned a supervised consumption site (SCS) that is currently in Vancouver, British Columbia. The government is open to sanctioning more sites across the country; however, by law the federal health minister must consider whether such facilities are supported by local governments representing the cities where the sites are proposed to be located. Until 2016, the government of Canada's largest city, Toronto, did not support SCSs. Drawing on Lenton cannabis policy research, this study analyses government documents, policy papers, scientific reports, and newspaper articles and secondary literature to identify some of the significant barriers that minimised the likelihood that Toronto's council would support SCSs between 2003 and 2016. The report compares conditions in Toronto to those of Vancouver where SCSs have enjoyed council support since 2001. This study find that three conditions play an important role in explaining why SCSs were supported in Vancouver 14 years before they were endorsed in Toronto: (1) Strong public support; (2) Favourable electoral conditions; and (3) Law enforcement support. Changes in Toronto surrounding these conditions help explain why its council endorsed SCSs in 2016. This study concludes that Lenton's research holds utility as a socio-legal theory of municipal drug policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The indicator of availability has been used in the risk assessment (RA) of new psychoactive substances (NPS). This paper aims to examine the pre- and post-control availability of 25I-NBOMe, AH-7921, MDPV and MXE, which were assessed by the EMCDDA.Methods: Data were collected by a semi-automated software tool (I-TREND SASF) on e-shops in national languages (Czech, French, Dutch, Polish and English) that offered shipping of these compounds into the respective countries; frequency analysis was used.Findings: The number of e-shops selling these substances decreased between III/2014 and XII/2015 (except for AH-7921). Both increases and decreases were found on the country-level for all the compounds (except for an overall decrease for MXE). In one instance an NPS disappeared from this market in 2015 (25I-NBOMe in NL); 25I-NBOMe and AH-7921 in France and AH-7921 in Poland appeared for the first time in 2015 after they were put under control. The e-shops listing AH-7921, 25I-NBOMe and MDPV in XII/2015 ranked higher in terms of “popularity” than in III/2014. The IP addresses were more likely to be outside the EU in 2015 than in 2014.Conclusions: We found no evidence that national-level compound bans contributed to the changes in online NPS markets. Indicators of the accessibility, availability, popularity, and IP origin should be considered in RA. Data triangulation with street markets and the darknet is needed as well as more research into the “displacement” and “replacement” effects of control laws. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims: Studying the characteristics of the science-policy nexus in the field of drugs emerged in parallel with an interest in the principles of good governance. Centre-stage is the processes through which policy is informed, especially with regard to the role of non-government actors, contrasting with the widely accepted view that drug policymaking is a prerogative of governments. Through the lens of what is defined as good governance in drug policy, this article examines the processes underpinning the drug-policy change in Belgium between 1996 and 2003. Methods: The paper is based on an analysis of 164 policy documents and 1067 newspaper articles, and 55 interviews with a range of stakeholders including policymakers, professionals, scientists and journalists. Findings: Some distinctive features were found relating to the mechanisms through which evidence was mobilised and eventually informed policy change in Belgium. Evidence-imbued leadership, evaluation, coordination, the engagement of different stakeholders and the role of the parliament played key roles. Conclusions: Several characteristics of good governance make the use of evidence more likely. However, governance processes seem to be challenged in highly sensitive discussions (e.g. on cannabis policy). Another challenge may be how the principles of good governance can be consolidated in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the reorganization of Finnish drug policy in the light of recent major changes. The analysis is inspired by writings of criminologist David Garland on crime control and governmental control strategies (Garland, 1996, 2000, 2001), and by the British drug debate on the normalization of drug use (Parker, 2005; Parker et al., 1998; Shiner & Newburn, 1999; South, 1999). Garland distinguishes between adaptive and non-adaptive social responses to crime. Adaptive responses generally lower the objectives of public policy because the goals seem unrealistic. If you cannot get the best, you can always strive for the good. Non-adaptive or repressive responses are needed to justify the image of the State as an efficient and competent actor. The conclusion of the paper is that, after a somewhat stormy debate in Finland around the turn of the century, the adaptive and non-adaptive responses have peacefully aligned with each other. This dual-track model has become the new paradigm in Finnish drug policy: Both harm reduction and criminal control approaches are now well established and expansive. Related trends are recognized also in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment service provision for problem drug users in the Republic of Ireland until the mid-1980s was centralized, specialist and ideologically tending towards abstinence models of intervention. However, in the context of continuing heroin use and its accompanying public health risks, all these features of policy and service provision changed gradually over the next decade. This paper looks in detail at the evolution of the methadone protocol of 1998, which institutionalized and regulated methadone prescribing by general medical practitioners in Ireland. It discusses the main stakeholders, lists the sequence of events and looks analytically at the policy process. It is concluded that the introduction of the methadone protocol was a pragmatic success, albeit one which departed significantly from conventional beliefs about policy transparency in democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illicit drug policy interventions cover treatment, law enforcement, prevention and harm reduction. This paper provides a comprehensive list across these sectors, of known drug policy interventions. One hundred and eight interventions were identified. With such a long and undifferentiated list of drug policy interventions, the ways in which these interventions are then coded and classified is also addressed. Ten different classification schemes are reviewed including summary information on the original sources and backgrounds to the schemes. The authors rated each of the policy interventions against the schemes. Those which proved useful in summarising illicit drug policy interventions included the four pillars approach, the UNODC classification, the demand, supply and harm reduction paradigm, the public health model and the policy instruments model. The list of 108 policy interventions will be of use to policy makers, researchers and practitioners in appreciating the array of drug policy options, and could be used in reviews of policy or practice. The classification schemes reveal the different ways in which drug policy interventions can be clustered and described to different audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug policy within the UK has been challenged to a greater degree in the last twelve months than at any time over the last ten years. That challenge consists of reports from the Royal Society of Arts and the UK Drug Policy Commission as well as empirical research on the classification of drugs within the Misuse of Drugs Act. These documents identify major weaknesses in the content, direction and delivery of UK drug policy and propose a new direction of policy and new elements of drug policy. In the case of the RSA report and the report from the UK Drug Policy Commission the principal recommendation is for drug policy to shift from its current tri-partite focus on treatment, prevention and education to focus first and foremost on reducing drug-related harm. This paper critically considers the assessment of drug policy set out within these reports and looks at the possible impact of a drug policy that prioritized harm reduction over prevention and enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the riskiness attached to illicit drug use by means of a social representations framework. The implications of these social representations are further studied through their associations with views on drug policy: restrictive control and harm reduction measures. The data for the study is from a Finnish Drug Survey (N = 3229). Latent class analysis (LCA) and multinomial logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Four representational profiles of perceived risk were identified: high-risk (70% of respondents), cannabis OK (15%), experimenting OK (10%), and low-risk (2%). All illicit drug use was considered as a moderate or high risk in the high-risk profile. Cannabis was considered less risky than other substances in the cannabis OK profile and experimenting was a less risky way of use in the experimenting OK profile. Most people in the low-risk profile considered the risks related to illicit drug use as nonexistent or minor. These representational profiles were also connected to opinions on drug policy: those who saw the most risks with use tended to support restrictive control measures, while those who considered illicit drug use to be less risky were more accepting toward harm reduction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been recent UK media attention on the global impact of the cocaine trade and the morality of personal use of cocaine powder. In this study we investigated whether people who use cocaine engage in moral disengagement (MD) strategies to reduce anticipated guilt associated with use. Participants read text describing the impact of the global cocaine market on others and completed a range of measures including assessments of substance use, MD, anticipated guilt, internalised moral identity, and empathy. We hypothesised that cocaine-related MD would positively predict cocaine use, and this would be partly mediated by anticipated guilt. Complete data were obtained from 254 participants through an anonymous cross-sectional survey (59.8% Female; mean age 30.8 ± 12.6 years). Our hypotheses were supported; (i) MD predicted cocaine use positively and anticipated guilt negatively; (ii) anticipated guilt negatively predicted cocaine use; anticipated guilt partially mediated the relationship between MD and cocaine use. People who use powder cocaine may use MD to reduce the anticipated guilt associated with knowledge of the harms associated with the drugs trade. Campaigns that focus on the morality of cocaine use or ethical choices may therefore have limited impact unless MD is challenged as part of these campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the paradigm shift to recovery in the Anglophone world, recovery is also gaining momentum in drug policy and practice in Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands. Since the meaning of recovery is being debated internationally, broadening the assessment of how the recovery framework is applied in policy discourse and how it is implemented in various international contexts is imperative. This comparative policy analysis aims to assess similarities and differences in addiction recovery vision, implementation, and evaluation in Flanders and the Netherlands. The thematic analysis draws upon a triangulation of different data collection methods: a focus group (n = 14) and interviews (n = 21) with key figures in the addictions field, followed by analyses of relevant policy documents (n = 9). Our findings show that a holistic vision of addiction recovery is endorsed in both countries. Although differences in policy development occurred (i.e. centrally driven in Flanders versus 'bottom-up' in the Netherlands), similar challenges emerged concerning recovery-oriented addiction policies. While policymakers in Flanders and the addiction sector in the Netherlands strongly proclaim recovery, structural implementation, dedicated funding, and systematic evaluation of recovery-oriented policies are lacking. This study suggests that systematic inclusion of experts by experience and aligning government and practice level funding and policies are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Novel psychoactive substances (NPS), a range of plant-based/synthetic substances that mimic effects of other illicit substances (e.g. cannabis), are now illegal in the United Kingdom (May 2016) to produce/supply. Negative behavioural consequences of NPS use mean that users frequently transgress the law are arrested and detained in police custody suites. Evidence shows a link between traditional substance use and offending behaviour, with significant police time spent on alcohol-related incidents. We explore the intersections between NPS and other substances with police staff and users in custody; specifically the similarities and differences in treatment, management and policing of these substances. Methods: A qualitative study using semistructured interviews and thematic analysis. We recruited 15 police staff (4 women/11 men) and 25 NPS users (9 women/16 men). Results: Police staff perceived NPS users to be extremely volatile in custody and reported feeling less knowledgeable about how to manage and respond to their needs compared to other substance users (e.g. alcohol, heroin). Users rarely took NPS in isolation and often compared them to other illicit substances, balancing effects versus costs. Conclusion: NPS use has a striking effect on custody work, primarily because of unpredictable user behaviour, adding further pressure to already overstretched police staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In February 2012, new sentencing guidelines for drug offences became effective in all courts in England and Wales. An explicit aim was to reduce the length of sentences for drug “mules” and so make them more proportionate.Methods: This article examines their early impact drawing on data from the Court Proceedings Database and the Crown Court Sentencing Survey for importing/exporting a Class A drug.Findings: Overall, the guidelines have achieved their intended aim. The length of the average custodial sentence for drug trafficking fell following the introduction of the guidelines, largely due to taking defendants' roles into account. Notably, three-quarters of those in “lesser” roles received sentences less than four years, representing an important change. Nonetheless, around 10% of mules received very long sentences due to the continued use of drug weight in sentencing.Conclusion: The new guidelines represent an internationally important innovation in drug policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims: To summarize published evidence for environmental strategies to prevent the non-medical use of marijuana (NMUM). Methods: Four databases (PSYCHINFO, SocINDEX, PsycARTICLES and Academic Search Complete) were searched for articles examining environmental strategies for NMUM prevention. Articles included were peer-reviewed, published in English between 2003 and 2013 and had full-text availability. The references listed in retrieved articles were included when they met selection criteria. Findings: Twenty articles met inclusion criteria. Seven described evaluations of media strategies to prevent marijuana use; eight examined the impact of policy on marijuana use (six described the impact of medical marijuana laws on use; two explored the impact of national-level policy and enforcement on use); and five explored price and availability and their impact on marijuana demand and use. Conclusions: Media prevention campaigns for NMUM work best when they are well-targeted and bolstered by community-level support. Marijuana-related policy studies on medical marijuana laws (MML) show inconsistent findings about their impact on NMUM. Unique distribution characteristics of marijuana make its use relatively insensitive to price fluctuations compared to other illicit drugs. Future research should focus on evaluation of: (a) policies that expand beyond MMLs, (b) marijuana enforcement strategies and (c) other types of state or local-level environmental strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an analytic commentary which focuses on how politicians in the UK view the drugs problem and the relative influence on them of values and evidence. It draws on a wider qualitative case study of the contemporary British drugs problem and policies. The context is one where over-arching narratives play a dominant role and in this the mass media have been shown to be important. Politicians rarely challenge these narratives. Many see drugs as a toxic issue, one best avoided. Where drugs have appeared on the political agenda, the issue has been used as a weapon in a political game. Scientific evidence and calm appraisal have been subordinated to electoral concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: 'Evidence-based policy' proposes that policy makers should be informed by scientists, so that policy will reflect accurate factual knowledge rather than political biases. Unfortunately, the science-policy nexus is much more complicated, especially in a heavily politicized domain. This article aims to understand the complex relationship between policy and science in the drug field in a more meaningful manner. Methods: Using the Belgian drug policy debate (1996-2003) as a case study, we critically explore the role of (scientific) knowledge in this debate. The methodology consists of a discourse analysis of submissions, hearings and parliamentary/government reports. Findings: An examination of how scientific knowledge was used in policy documents has demonstrated rather strong utilization. However, utilization was often subordinate to the complexity of the policy-making process involving not only scientific knowledge but also interests, electoral ambitions, etc. Likewise, scientific knowledge was also shaped and distorted by conflicting values and interests. Conclusion: Consistent with the models of knowledge utilization, scientific knowledge has been just one element in the policy making process characterized above all by competing values and interests. The principle of 'evidence-based' policy clearly faces significant challenges and therefore becomes a delicate balancing act between ideal and reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, based on qualitative interviews with experienced professionals and bureaucrats involved in the management of drug-using offenders in Ireland, looks at the Dublin pilot drug court as an example of policy transfer between countries. Those interviewed were generally unconvinced that the American drug court model was technically more effective than more traditional methods of diverting offenders from custodial sentencing into treatment, and tended to see political support for the initiative in terms of the symbolic value of this liberal, humanistic alternative to imprisonment. They also agreed, however, that the Dublin drug court was not true to the American model in that it did not embody the philosophy of therapeutic jurisprudence which is central to American drug court practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study examined the relationship of youth marijuana use and perceived ease of access with the number of medical marijuana cards at the county-level, and marijuana norms as indicated by per cent of voters approving legalization of medical marijuana in 2004. Methods: Survey data from 17,482 youths (aged 13-19) in Montana and county-level archival data, including votes for the legalization of medical marijuana and the number of medical marijuana cards were analysed using hierarchical linear modelling. Findings: Living in a county with more medical marijuana cards was not related to lifetime or 30-day marijuana use. However, voter approval of medical marijuana was positively related to lifetime and 30-day use. Perceived ease of access to marijuana was positively related to medical marijuana cards, but this relation became non-significant when voter approval was controlled. Among marijuana users, marijuana cards and voter approval were positively related to perceived ease of access. Conclusions: The relation between medical marijuana cards and youth use may be related to an overall normative environment that is more tolerant of marijuana use. Interventions to prevent youth marijuana use should focus on adult norms regarding use by and provision of marijuana to youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author considers a public health framework as an alternative to a criminal justice approach in the European Union (EU) drug strategy. Particular focus is given to the current strategy, as well as the term "harm reduction." Information on trends in the European drug situation, such as drug use and supply, is given. Also discussed are recommendations for the next EU drug strategy, questions that should be addressed, and health promotion agenda of a public health approach.

Aim: To describe the availability of injecting paraphernalia in the UK following the introduction of legislation that permits supply for harm reduction purposes. Methods: A postal questionnaire undertaken 18 months after the law change, sent to all identified UK drugs services. Those providing needle exchange were asked to respond. Co-ordinators of their schemes completed the questionnaires. Findings: A total of 469 services were identified and contacted, 403 (86%) responded. Of these, 231 provided needle exchange (NX) from 1521 outlets. On average, they were responsible for 1.6 agency-based, 4.2 pharmacy, 0.7 outreach and 0.2 ‘other’ NX outlets. Of those providing NX, 212 (92%) supplied one or more items of paraphernalia, most commonly swabs ( n = 220, 87%), followed by citric acid sachets ( n = 155, 67%), filters ( n = 106, 46%), spoons ( n = 102, 44%), vitamin C sachets ( n = 69, 30%) and sterile water ( n = 52, 23%). Other items supplied were citric acid loose powder ( n = 34, 15%), tourniquets ( n = 34, 15%) and vitamin C loose powder ( n = 6, 3%). Only 4% ( n = 10) said their services supplied all six items necessary in the injection process (sterile water, spoons, an acid, filters, tourniquets and swabs). Most commonly only two items were supplied, usually swabs and one acid and 63% ( n = 144) supplied 3 or less items. Most commonly finances were said to limit supply. Sharing paraphernalia is associated with an increased risk of IDUs being hepatitis C (HCV) antibody positive. These data suggest that the range of paraphernalia supplied by needle exchanges could be extended from the majority of outlets, in the absence of information that can attribute risk to the sharing of specific items. Conclusions: Although the majority of services supplied some form of paraphernalia, most did not supply the full range. Further research is needed to establish the impact of this supply on blood-borne virus and bacterial infections and whether increased supply is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the degeneration of drug policies in Great Britain. It notes that the deteriorated governments that were formed by the same political parties as central government requires attention to be responsive to the needs of the people. It also notes that the drug policies being developed and implemented across the region exist within basically the same cultural and legal framework, with measurable differences between countries which addresses problem or set of problems that are possible to quantify. Moreover, it states that politicians agree to the quasi-experimental approach in drug policy study in which the evaluation of evolving policy measures is necessary.

In May this year ten new countries joined the existing European Union (EU) member states after long and complex accession negotiations. This article examines preparations for accession that were made in the area of illicit drug policy and discusses both their effectiveness and possible limitations. In the areas of drug trafficking and production and the exchange of information between member states some concrete policy measures have been almost directly transferable to new member states, largely due to the high degree of cooperation between existing member states in these areas. However, in the more controversial areas of harm reduction and dealing with drug use and drug users there are no concrete EU guidelines in place and policy is left up to the national governments of individual countries. In this important area many existing EU member states have adopted important measures designed to reduce the harm of official drug policy but these practices are not proving to be so easily transferable to new member states. This article discusses the consequences of failing to adequately develop policy across the EU in this important area and suggests that failing to address this important issue in the new member states could have far reaching ramifications for the rest of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last three years, the newly announced drug policy, specifically cannabis, has been the subject of debate between the Government and the opposition parties within the Belgian Federal Government. Public communication by the Federal Government and the competent ministers was incomplete, untimely, inconsistent, tendentious and polemical. This caused confusion when discussing whether and when the possession of cannabis would be legal as well as what the criteria might be for determining prosecution for possessing cannabis. This article shows the way in which political spin dealing with policy intentions can negatively influence the public's knowledge of the policies and the way it can interfere with informational activities. The article is based on an analysis of policy documents, legal texts, media reports, call reports from the Association for Alcohol and other Drug Problems, secondary survey data and our own survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]