Video 15: How drug law enforcement affects drug markets

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Из курса от партнера University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

8 оценок

University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

8 оценок

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

Today, I'm going to talk about even how drug law enforcement affects drug markets.

Drug policies shows that actually protect the health and well-being of citizens.

So, if we want to establish if enforcement works,

we have to measure the effects of its enforcements when drug market against the question

if enforcement is actually instrumental in reducing drug consumption and it's harm.

A simple economic model of drug market suggests that this is

the case because if law enforcement removes enough product from the market, let's say,

enough heroin from the heroin market,

they should raise prices for the heroin remaining on the market and

this in turn should mean less demand for this heroin.

In the real world,

there are several problems with this idea.

Actually, the model does not work out.

First, although it might be true that illegality of drugs makes them more expensive,

tough enforcement does not.

The explanation for that has already been given

by Peter Reuter and Mark Kleiman 30 years ago.

In their 1986 paper Risks and Prices,

they argued that the price difference between drugs and other agricultural goods globally

traded such as coffee or

cocoa can indeed be explained by the fact that drugs are illegal.

Enforcement of prohibition can indeed result in seizures of product or

incarceration of traffickers both of which

means that the traffickers with loss of income.

Drug traffickers, Reuter and Kleiman argue,

are aware of this risk and they account for these

by adding risk premiums to the initial price of the drugs.

In essence, Reuter and Kleiman model states that the risk of

enforcements per se not the actual level of enforcement is driving drug prices.

If this model is correct,

it is not the actual level of enforcement that makes drugs expensive,

it's the mere fact that traffickers have to operate in a illegal environment.

Indeed, studies have shown that stepping up enforcement does

actually not raise prices at a significant level.

Tougher enforcement seems to raise drug prices only marginally at best.

The second problem with the initial model of

restricted supply raising prices and diminishing

demand has to do with the question where

these risk premiums are actually added in the supply chain?

The common assumption in fighting drug market is that

drug supply should be addressed at the source,

in the production countries.

It's easier, the argument goes to destroy large plantations or

improvised laboratories in production countries and actually ceasing processed products,

which is only a fraction of the volume of these plantations.

The problem with this idea is that risk premiums and prices

tend to get higher the closer one moves to the retail markets.

This mean that upstream enforcement to raise prices at retail level is actually futile.

A simple calculation, we'll use this.

Let say a kilogram of heroin processed in

an illegal laboratory in Afghanistan currently costs of around $700.

It's price at the wholesale level in Switzerland is around thirty $30,000.

Assuming that an extremely successful enforcement campaign in Afghanistan could

remove two kilograms of heroin for every kilogram that leaves the country,

upstream enforcement would be able to raise the price per kilo kilogram

threefold from $700 to $2100.

This might sound impressive,

but its effect on wholesale and retail prices in Switzerland are not.

The additional $1400 the traffickers have to pay in Afghanistan would only

at four percent to the Swiss wholesale price at the moment.

Already at the wholesale level,

the price rise cost by successful upstream enforcement will be moderate at best.

For users who buy street heroin far above the price of $30 per gram here in Switzerland,

the effect of enforcement in Afghanistan would hardly be detectable in the end.

The third problem with enforcement is that trafficking organizations are much more

resilient to drug law enforcement than we often assume.

Research has shown that network forms of organization and

most drug trafficking organizations are actually networked forms of organizations,

are much quicker to adapt to changing circumstances than hierarchical organizations.

This means that even if law enforcement achieve successes in fighting

particular organizations or closing down particular routes for drugs smuggling,

it's likely that drug trafficking organizations will be able to

cope and change their tactics very quickly.

Law enforcement personnel often expresses

the feeling that they are always one step behind drug traffickers.

Seen from an organizational perspective, this might be true.

It has to do with the fact that drug traffickers are much better

adapting to law enforcement activities than the other way around.

Taken together, there are several reasons for why a simple model of supply and

demand is not a realistic representation of the dynamics of drug markets.

From an economic perspective,

drug enforcement alone is not suitable to protect

the health and well-being of citizens in the context of drug policies.

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