Drug Policy

Description

In this book, anthropologists, criminologists and sociologists analyse different aspects of drug policy. The articles approach drug policy from new angles, focusing in particular on the history and consequences of drug policy in practice. How can we understand and explain the increasingly complex puzzle that we call drug policy? The authors explore in different ways how drug policy has spread into new areas of society, how new players are engaged in drug policy, and what consequences this has for drug users, citizens, or society in general. Taking a point of departure in drug policy as a way of regulating drugs - including control, treatment, prevention and harm reduction - the book shows how drug policy has become increasingly diverse and evident at many levels of society. A very wide range of drug policies are implemented in contemporary societies - not only by governments, but also by local communities, organisations, public institutions, private enterprises, sports clubs etc. Using examples from both Denmark and the USA, drug policy is analysed on an international, national and local level. This book will be of great value to advanced undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in drug policy, as well as to academics, practitioners and policy makers in the drug policy field.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology

Informations

• Publié par: Aarhus University Press
• Date de parution: 30 décembre 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788771245530
• Langue: English

Extrait

Edited by Vibeke Asmussen Frank, Bagga Bjerge Esben Houborg
DRUG POLICY
In memory of Lau Laursen Storgaard
Distinguished Danish drug policy researcher
PREFACE

This book is the outcome of the curiosity of several social drug researchers about how drug policies emerge and spread into many and often surprising areas of social life. In their effort to satisfy this curiosity, some of the researchers taking part have set up projects to do research on drug policy or included drug policy as an important topic in their ongoing research. How does international drug policy take local forms? What are the practical and ideological implications when national drug policies change? How should we approach the drug field as social scientists? How can we understand the processes that transform policies into social life? Questions like these have forced the authors to make choices as well as rethinking drug policy as a field of study. The aim of drug policy is usually perceived as the regulation of drugs, comprising drug control, treatment, prevention, and/or harm reduction. The authors show that studying these different elements as interrelated areas instead of separate areas leads to important insights into the drug research field in general.
All the authors but one are (or have been) employed at the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Denmark, and have a professional background in anthropology, criminology, or sociology. All the empirical examples but one are also from Denmark. The last contribution is from the US. The opportunity to explore differences and compare research between a welfare society like Denmark and the US (which is the world s leading drug policy maker) has been important to all the authors. We should like to thank the Faculty of Social Sciences, Aarhus University, for making it possible to discuss and exchange experiences across the Atlantic by supporting a seminar on drug policy held in rhus in April 2007.
The book has received financial support from Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond (the Aarhus University Research Fund) and Forsknings- og innovationsstyrelsen (the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation). We are thankful for this support, which made the book possible.
Finally, we thank all the peer reviewers who willingly took upon them to read and criticize the articles. Their comments and constructive advices have made them all better.
rhus, September 2008 Vibeke Asmussen Frank, Bagga Bjerge Esben Houborg.
Esben Houborg, Bagga Bjerge Vibeke Asmussen Frank
INTRODUCTION: DANISH DRUG POLICY - HISTORY, THEORY, AND THE INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK

Danish drug policy has seen considerable changes since the turn of the century. These changes have been on two fronts. First, formal government policy has undergone a number of changes which have made Danish drug policy more restrictive - although on the other hand the political focus on treatment which started in the mid-1990s has continued, for instance by making drug treatment a social right and making heroin substitution treatment possible. These developments can, as we will show below, be understood by applying a number of well-known concepts in drug policy analysis. The second front in the development of drug policy in Denmark concerns a veritable proliferation of drug policies. An increasing number of players and institutions such as parents, local communities, educational institutions, sports clubs and private enterprises are now engaged in developing and carrying out drug policies. Sometimes this is a consequence of new governmental strategies on behalf of public authorities. But frequently it is also because drugs and living with drugs are now an immediate concern for many people and institutions. Not only in relation to the dangers of drug use, but also a focus on drug use and drug dealing as a nuisance in local communities. The development of Danish drug policy on these two fronts makes it very relevant to study Danish drug policy today. Without claiming to present a comprehensive account of these various developments, this volume will include contributions that supply some of the first pieces of the increasingly complex puzzle of Danish drug policy today. This will be done under three headings dealing with various levels of drug policy. First, the ways in which drug policies are developed in various institutional settings like prisons and social institutions for homeless people. These studies deal with the way drug policies vary as they are developed and practised in various institutional conditions, and the way particular conditions (the prison setting, for instance) can place severe constraints on the kind of drug policies that can be implemented. Secondly, we include studies of the way in which drug policies are developed and carried out at local level in two Danish cities, and the effects and consequences of these local drug policies. The third and final section deals with drug policy more on a macro level in terms of the historical development of modern Danish drug policy, with regard to legislation, law enforcement and treatment. It also contains a contribution from the USA, which shows one particular version of how drug policy proliferates into all sorts of different policies and practices. In this introduction we will provide a framework for these various contributions to this volume. We will elaborate on the current state of Danish drug policy on the two fronts mentioned above - the formal drug policy of the Danish government and the proliferation of drug policies beyond the state. It is the opinion of the editors that these developments in Danish drug policy provide a fertile basis for the articulation of new empirical problems and analytical questions in drug policy analysis, some of which will be presented. When discussing the framework and conditions of drug policy it is not possible to ignore the international drug control system, which puts a number of constraints on how problems can be defined and which solutions can be developed both nationally and locally. This introduction will therefore also present this system to readers who are not familiar with it, and discuss the room for variety in drug policy, which this system leaves.
Danish drug policy
Drug policies usually comprise a mix of three or four different ways of regulating drugs. These are: drug control, which encompasses drug legislation and law enforcement; drug treatment for people who have drug problems; drug prevention to stop people from starting to use drugs; and finally harm reduction, which has the goal of minimising the risks and harm of ongoing drug use. Against this background the particular drug policy of a country, region or city can be characterised according to the content of and balance between these different elements of drug policy. The overall drug policy resulting from such a mix is sometimes described according to how it prioritises use reduction and harm reduction - comparing stopping or minimising use as much as possible against minimising the harmfulness of use (MacCoun, Reuter et al. 1996; MacCoun 1998; MacCoun Reuter 2001). There is not necessarily a contradiction between these two goals, but there may be. It is all a matter of degree. Too much effort put into stopping or minimising use can lead to higher risks and more harm for people who continue to use drugs (O Malley Mugford 1991).
Modern Danish drug policy was born in 1955 with the Act on Euphoriant Drugs (see Jepsen in this volume). This act was in principle a regulatory instrument with an added penal clause, which raised the penalties for violations of the drug legislation to two years from the six-month maximum of the Opium Act, a predecessor to the Law on Euphoriant Drugs that focused on production rather than use. The Act on Euphoriant Drugs made the possession of illegal drugs for personal consumption an offence in Denmark for the first time (Nimb 1961; Jepsen 1966; Kruse, Winsl w et. al. 1989). However, in connection with the promulgation of the act it was stated that the penalisation of possession was not meant to criminalise users, but was only meant to be a short cut to criminalising possession with the intent to deal. During the years 1965-1969 an increasing number of charges were made in connection with possession (primarily of cannabis). Particularly in Copenhagen the numbers rose steeply, although the dominant reaction was a simple caution. Only a few minor dealers were charged, and here the primary reaction involved fines. The rising number of cases was among the reasons for the creation of a separate provision in the penal code in 1969 ( 191 of the penal code) for particularly serious violations of the Act on Euphoriant Drugs, which raised the maximum penalty to six years. Less serious violations were still dealt with under the Act on Euphoriant Drugs, with its maximum of two years imprisonment. 1 The Danish Parliament wanted to avoid a rub-off effect of the rise in penalties, and did not want to criminalise the large number of young people experimenting with drugs, particularly cannabis. So an agreement was made between the Parliament and the Ministry of Justice, which told the Attorney General to issue a circular instructing police and prosecutors not to go after simple possession, particularly not young people (for details see Jepsen in this volume). Law enforcement was to be used primarily against drug dealers and drug traffickers, while other means like treatment, education, social services and prevention were to be used against drug users (Laursen 1995; Storgaard 2000; Laursen Jepsen 2002). Following this depenalisation of possession for personal consumption, the number of charges for possession dropped while the number of charges against serious violations rose in the following years. This de-penalisation of possession of drugs for personal co