Video 13: Prohibition fuels violence, crime and corruption

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Из курса от партнера University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

36 оценки

University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

36 оценки

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use? You will also learn about the intricacies of the international drug control framework and the negative consequences of widespread prohibitionist drug policies around the world. Finally, you will examine ways of furthering drug policy reform. The topics will be presented by over 40 speakers from scientific, academic and institutional backgrounds, spokespersons of civil society as well as people who use drugs presenting their views. By the end of the course you will have: - a strong understanding of the major health issues related to drug use and drug policy; - a clear vision of why drug policy is debated today; - and, if you so wish, you will be equipped to engage in the drug policy reform movement at your local or regional level.

Из урока

Module 4: Questioning prohibition-based policies

Welcome to Module 4 which looks at questioning prohibition-based policies. In this Module, you will discover that most drug policies in the world are based on prohibition law enforcement and criminalization of drug use ; and see that such policies have a number of negative consequences on people’s health as well as on their human rights. This Module will also look at law enforcement more closely and reveal how it can cooperate to improve health. You will learn about the human rights framework and the drug control framework and see what human rights violations, stemming from the implementation of prohibitionist drug policies, look like around the world. Finally, you will also see that drug policies are connected to development and the environment, most often not in a good way, with prohibition fueling violence, crime and corruption and impeding development. By the end of this Module you will be able to: • Evaluate the extent to which prohibition-based policies have succeeded or failed in reducing drug production, trafficking and consumption; • Describe the negative impacts of prohibition-based policies on health, human rights and development; • Recall how prohibition-based policies fuel organized crime and trafficking. We hope this week will provide you with valuable insight into the reality of prohibitionist drug policies, for people in communities all over the world ; and help you see what have been the consequences of these policies, in terms of their impact on human rights, health and development. We also hope you enjoy the essential reading and optional additional resources we have prepared for you. Best wishes,The Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy and Health team

Video 7: How the human rights framework and the drug control framework interact12:00

Video 8: Prohibitionist drug policies: violations of human rights9:11

Video 9: Prohibitionist drug policies: violations of human rights of women who use drugs14:06

Video 10: A closer look at drug policies in Asia – the limits of extremity in drug policy8:41

Video 11: Violations of human rights in Central America and South America6:10

Video 12: Prohibitionist law enforcement drug policies negatively impact development and the environment6:46

Video 13: Prohibition fuels violence, crime and corruption9:24

Video 14: How prohibition fuels violence, crime and corruption: the situation in Central America6:37

Video 15: How drug law enforcement affects drug markets5:55

Познакомьтесь с преподавателями

Michel Kazatchkine
Senior Fellow
Global Health Center, Graduate Institute for International Affairs and Development, Geneva
Barbara Broers
Professor (in Addiction Medicine)
Community Health Departement, Geneva University Hospitals
Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe
Researcher and Lecturer
Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva
Aymeric Reyre
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Medicine, Paris 13 University

Prohibitionist policies, as we will see, encourage violence, crime and corruption

in the drug market as a result of the fact that illegality gives to these markets

economic importance.

In order to understand this situation, economy on one side and crime on the other

first, we need to realise the economic scale of drug market.

What is the economic reality of this market today?

A few years ago, in 2005, UN stated of a global market corresponding to

325 billions of US dollars.

Let's take methodological precautions as it is still difficult to observe

underground markets and derive reliable estimates.

Rather than a global number we will prefer national estimates.

On this board I give you some recent estimates, as for instance estimates

about the Italian drug market: cannabis, cocaine and heroine, where, in 2014

Giommoni evaluate as an example the Italian cannabis market around 550 million of euros

for a consumed volume which had been purchased a little less than 70 tonnes.

Also recently, in 2016, with some colleagues we evaluated that the cannabis

market in France was equal to more than a billion euros for 154 tonnes consumed,

still as an example, the cocaine market was equal to 900 millions of euros

for 15 tonnes consumed.

On this board you can observe that the American market is disproportionate

with other countries.

Of course there is the impact of the population of users but the more recent

American estimates showed that the cannabis market was equal to 41 billion

dollars for 5 700 tonnes consumed.

The American cocaine market would equal 28 billion dollars in terms of turnover

for 145 tonnes of consumed cocaine.

As we can see, drug market or at least the turnover made from one country

to another is different according to substances and to countries.

We can also observe that given the volume of consumed and bought quantities

the impact of customs seizures must be quite low.

We have a quite important market that produces a quite significant turnover, but

we can also observe that the distribution of the profits generated are totally uneven.

Particularly upstream and downstream this market, in other words

for the farmer and the client.

For instance, Wilson and Stevens observed in 2008 that the price for one kilo

of cocaine and one of heroine is respectively of 325 pounds and 450 pounds.

From the moment we go to international dealers, South-American or Caribbeans

for cocaine and Turk for heroine, we witness an increase of the price per kilo

of the substance which reach 7 800 pounds for cocaine and 8 000 pounds for heroine,

and so on, drugs coming in the British market know another increase, and it is

increased once more until the final selling price to the customer or to the street price.

These increases from the farmer to the customer are disproportionate

if we compare the illicit field to the legal field.

As an example, Wilson and Stevens again tell us there is an increase of more

than 15 000% for the price of cocaine and of more than 16 000% and even

17 000% for the heroine one.

By contrast, if we look at another stimulant such as coffee for instance

we have an increase of 400% between the farmer and the final customer

so it is clear here that the illicit aspect, the prohibition,

encourages profit out of these substances.

It is clear that we are on a totally uneven distribution, that the distribution chain is

exploited upstream and downstream, on one side the farmer and on the other the dealer.

These two individuals have to finally arbitrate between legal and illegal

field of work, and the socio-economic conditions, whether upstream or downstream

certainly benefits to this illegal work.

What is the relationship between prohibitionist policies which encourage

this economic gain and crime, violence and corruption?

Already 20 years ago in 1995, authors Myron and Svebel showed in a famous

paper that the more law enforcement increases the more, on these very markets,

the benefit to use violence increases, as it is easier to use murder, torture,

violence than a war on prices or a war over the quality of products for instance.

Moreover, for these traffickers or these dealers, the cost to use violence will

decrease as once I have committed one murder to commit a second, a third or

a fourth will not change much to my situation.

On an other hand we also notice that repression when it is acting in a framework

of competition for space as can be points of sale in a city for instance,

will encourage the "balloon effect".

Here the balloon effect means that increasing repression on a sale point

or on a street or on a neighbourhood for instance will lead to an increase

of crime and violence in adjacent areas, as the people who cannot work anymore

in an area will move, this relocation will lead traffickers, dealers to fight

with each other, and crime will explode.

This "balloon effect" phenomenon has been observed at the street and neighbourhood

level but also at the city and country level.

Finally, the main idea of this "balloon effect" is that the fight against trafficking

in a place will only move the problem or even aggravate it.

Finally, illegality also encourages corruption.

As we can see, the international trade is huge, we go from South America to

Europe, from South America to the States of North America and eventually

this international trade, through the African routes for instance, benefits

currently from the weakness of States institutions.

Especially since the cost of this corruption is altogether quite low

and that anyway it will be pass on the final selling price.

Therefore, by encouraging corruption the illegality of the market discredit

and unsettle the institutions democratic and political.

It is also clear that these generated sums of money encourage violence,

discredit our institutions also, but potentially create negative externalities

on the financial and banking system, or even tax havens as all this money

needs to be laundered.

Laundered at the local level if we look at the bottom of distribution with basic

means of laundering, but with way more complex means using the financial and

banking system and tax havens on top of the pyramid of profits.

We can say that prohibitionist policies by refusing to implement a legal framework

of economic competition with tools such as the price, quantities, the quality of

products and the use of legal contracts, is only encouraging criminal competition

which uses tools such as violence, corruption and the law of the strongest.

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