Search

Background: An unintended consequence of drug prohibitions is that they often fail to absolutely deter potential drug dealers and users and instead restrictively deter them. One way in which dealers sometimes alter their behaviour in response to these prohibitions is by using violent forms of social control to prevent their customers from committing careless behaviour or from becoming police informants. Many dealers, however, are reluctant to use violent forms of social control for various reasons. Little research has explored how these dealers use nonviolent threats and promises to prevent these behaviours among their customers and how these forms of social control then influence their perceptions of the risk of formal punishment.Methods: To perform this examination, this paper employs information gathered through semi-structured interviews with 33 unincarcerated illicit drug sellers operating in and around St. Louis, Missouri.Results: This group of drug dealers relied on threats of nonviolent outcomes to prevent their customers from behaving carelessly before, during, and after drug transactions and used implicit promises of continued rewards to dissuade customers from providing information to the police. They presumed that these measures reduced the likelihood of their customers committing these actions. This then decreased their perceptions of the risks of selling illicit drugs.Conclusion: The present findings suggest that an unintended impact of drug prohibitions is that they sometimes restrictively deter drug dealers instead of preventing them from selling illicit drugs. They also suggest that restrictive deterrence among drug dealers can take the shape of social control. The findings also indicate that friendship norms can serve to inoculate dealers against the threat of formal punishment. Finally, the study suggests that levels of drug market violence may be related more to the nature of the relationships between drug market participants and their cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: International drug law enforcement agencies have identified an apparent rise in high level drug traffickers choosing to deal in multiple different drugs. It is hypothesised that this may be a "deliberate modus operandi" and that the formation of "portfolios of trades" may make such traffickers more profitable, harmful and resilient to changes in drug supply and policing. In this paper we provide the first exploration of the extent, nature and harms of poly-drug trafficking at Australian borders.Methods: Two different methods were used. First, we used Australian Federal Police (AFP) data on all commercial level seizures at the Australian border from 1999 to 2012 to identify the proportion of seizures that were poly-drug and trends over time. Second, we used unit-record data on a sub-set of 20 drug trafficking cases and linked-cases (defined as the original drug trafficking case and all other criminal cases that were connected via common offenders and/or suspects) to compare the profiles of poly-drug and mono-drug traffickers, including: the total weight and type of drug seized, the value of assets seized, and the level of involvement in other crime (such as money laundering and corruption).Results: Between 5% and 35% of commercial importations at the Australian border involved poly-drug trafficking. Poly-drug trafficking occurred in almost every year of analysis (1999-2012), but it increased only slightly over time. Compared to mono-drug traffickers poly-drug traffickers were characterised by: larger quantities of drugs seized, larger networks, longer criminal histories and more involvement in other types of serious crime.Conclusion: Some fears about poly-drug traffickers may have been overstated particularly about the inherent escalation of this form of trafficking. Nevertheless, this suggests poly-drug traffickers are likely to pose added risks to governments and law enforcement than mono-drug traffickers. They may necessitate different types of policy responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2012 Colorado voters approved legalized recreational marijuana. On January 1, 2014 Colorado became the first state to allow legal sales of non-medical marijuana for adults over the age of 21. Since that time, the state has been monitoring potential impacts on population health. In this paper we present lessons learned in the first three years following legal sales of recreational marijuana. These lessons pertain to health behaviors and health outcomes, as well as to health policy issues. Our intent is to share these lessons with other states as they face the prospect of recreational marijuana legalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains how the current architecture of the pharmaceutical markets has created a misalignment of financial incentives and public health that is a central cause of harmful practices. It explores three possible solutions to address that misalignment: taxes, increased financial penalties, and drug pricing based on value. Each proposal could help to partly realign financial incentives and public health. However, because of the limits of each proposal, there is no easy solution to fixing the problem of financial incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]