Drugs and Crime
The Drug Prohibition Movement:
A Brief Overview
• The nature & availability of drugs in the 19th
century
– Opium and derivate use
– Growth of addiction during Civil War
• morphine effective pain killer
• hypodermic needle invented
• Post war affluence
— health care access, and addiction in the middle/upper classes
• No prescription needed - patent medicines
– mixtures of alcohol and opium
– sold from corner drug store
– Barkers in traveling road shows
Shift toward Prohibition in late19th
 Growing fear and intolerance of drugs and
movement by states to control
 The role of drug myths (a 19th century claims maker tool)
– Myths re: women
– Myths re: minorities
• blacks said to be consuming huge amounts of
cocaine
• produced “coca mania”
The Movement Began at State
Level
• Requirements for a prescription from physician
– One big problem: Patent medicine loophole
– Also lack of uniform drug laws across states
– States lack resources to enforce new laws
• Reluctance of federal government to intervene
– concerns about federalism and states rights
The Feds Get Involved: Two
Motivators
1. Growth and power of medical profession
– AMA founded in 1847, but weak during 19th
– threatening to most doctors, didn’t belong to AMA
– Didn’t need lot of knowledge to prescribe drug
• During Progressive movement, AMA grew powerful
– advanced medical training became available
– awareness of dangers of drugs
– patent medicines took money out of their pocket
• AMA lobbied for federal prohibition of narcotics w/o
doctor’s prescription
2. Capitalism and desire for
Chinese Markets
• China not receptive
– harsh discriminatory practices in U.S.
– China’s experience with Anglos
• China was swamped with opium from
Britain
• U.S. wanted to improve relations with China
– Called international conference of nations
– ban opium distribution
• Problem: U.S. had no law prohibiting opium
The Harrison Act of 1914
• First Federal drug law
• Requirements
– License, tax ($1 per year), and records
– License restricted to medical
professionals
• How physicians viewed the Harrison
Act
• How the Treasury Department viewed
Act
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937
 Effectively added marijuana to
prohibited substances under
Harrison
 Required tax and registration for
dealers
 Impetus for act
• Marijuana “epidemic”
• Empire building by federal bureaucrats
• Bigotry toward Mexicans
Comprehensive Drug Abuse and
Prevention and Control Act of
1970
• Unified categories of illegal drugs and
penalties
• Basis of federal and state drug
enforcement today
• Compressed Harrison Act and
amendments into one law
• Title II: Substance Control Act - drug
schedules
Criteria
Examples
Drugs with high abuse
potential and NO SAFE
ACCEPTED medical use in
U.S.
Marijuana, heroin,
LSD, PCP,
mescaline
Drugs with high abuse
potential, with SAFE
SCHEDULE II
ACCEPTED medical use in
U.S.
Opium, cocaine,
morphine,
methamphetamine,
methadone
SCHEDULE I
SCHEDULE III
Drugs with moderate
abuse potential, with
recognized medical use in
U.S.
Barbiturates,
amphetamines
SCHEDULE IV
Drugs with low abuse
potential, with recognized
medical use in U.s.
Valium, Darvon,
Phenobarbital
Drugs with minimal abuse
potential, with recognized
Cough medicine with
small amount of
SCHEDULE V
Contemporary Federal Drug
Control Strategies
The Current War on Drugs:
Trends in federal expenditures for the drug war
FY 2003 Federal Drug Control Budget
Three-Pronged Federal Drug
Control Strategy
Demand Reduction
• Several ways to reduce demand, all
focus on increasing the price of drugs
• Assumption that drug abuse is
“inelastic”
• Increase the costs of selling drugs,
which will increase price of drugs
• Problems with increasing price of drugs
• Increase profitability lures more to
market
• Creates incentives to increase drug
Supply Reduction
• Eliminate or reduce availability of
drugs
• Supply reduction strategies
• Crop eradication programs
– Problems with eradication programs
– Resistance from host governments
– “Push-down, pop up effect”
• Border interdiction programs
Prevention/Education/Treatme
nt
• DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education)
– Most widely used school based
curriculum
– 1.3 billion dollars annually
– Effectiveness of DARE
– National Academy of Sciences
– U.S. Surgeon General’s conclusion
• Other public education initiatives
The National Youth Anti-Drug
Media Campaign
• Created by Congress in 1998
• Targets youth age 9-18 and their parents
• TV, radio, print, and Internet advertising
Drugs and Crime
Treatment
• Variety of treatment modalities
• Studies have concluded drug
treatment is beneficial, though
degree may be overstated
• Treatment programs under funded
• Few in need receive treatment
Drug Seizures (in pounds)
FY 1998
FY 1999
FY 2000
FY2001
2,047,558
2,571,355
2,894,200
2,913,724
3,499
2,733
6,640
4,379
266,029
284,631
248,827
235,377
1,777,434
2,282,313
2,614,746
2,673,535
596
1,678
23,987
433
Drug
Total
Heroin
Cocaine
Marijuana
Hashish
Number of Arrests by Drug Law
Violation
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Sale/manufacture
Possession
Drug Offenders in State Prisons,
1980-2001
246,100
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20
Percentage of Persons Age 12 Years or Older
Reporting Any Illicit Drug Use in Past Year
Source: National Household Survey on Drug
Percentage of Persons Age 12-17 Reporting
Any Illicit Drug Use in Past Year
Source: National Household Survey on Drug
Marijuana Use Among College
Students
Info from Retail Level Drug
Sales
•
•
•
•
Drugs more available
Price of drugs has decreased
Purity level of drugs has increased
Spread of designer and “cottage-level”
drugs
The Legalization Debate
Pro-Legalization Arguments
 Current policies are a failure
 more available, more potent, cheaper
• Drug war has high physical costs to
society
– Increases transmission of HIV
– Overdoses due to adulterated street
drugs
More Arguments for
Legalization
• War on drugs is racist
– Majority of drug consumers are white, but
majority incarcerated for drug offenses are
non-white
– More young black males under correctional
supervision than attending college
– Incarceration of black males destroying the
black family
– War on drugs is genocide of Black family
• Incarceration of Blacks destroying Black family
Arguments for Legalization
• War on drugs exacerbates the crime
problem
– High price of illegal drugs means addict
has to steal more to support habit
– Current illegal drug markets foster
violence
More Arguments for
Legalization
• Drug war is a war on civil liberties
– 4th Amendment rights have been
whittled away
– Suspicion-less drug testing in the
workplace and schools
– Civil forfeiture of property
Prohibition Arguments
• If drugs were legalized, consumption
would increase
– From 1972 to 1978, eleven states
decriminalized marijuana possession
• Yet, after 1978 marijuana use steadily
declined for over a decade.
– The Netherlands decriminalized possession
and allowed small scale sales of marijuana
beginning in 1976.
• Marijuana use in Holland half the rate in U.S
Prohibition Arguments
• Crime rate would increase
– Argue clear link between drugs and crime
– Statistics do suggest a link between drugs and
crime
Drug Use Among Booked
Arrestees
Source: Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program
Drug Use by State Prison Inmates
Murder
26.8
Committed
offense for
money to buy
drugs (%)
5.0
Sexual assault
21.5
2.0
Robbery
39.9
27.0
Aggravated
Assault
Burglary
24.2
6.0
38.4
30.0
Larceny/theft
38.4
31.0
Under influence at
Type of Offense
time of offense (%)
THREE
THEORETICAL
SIDE
BAR
LINKS
BETWEEN
DRUGS &
CRIME
Three Model of Drugs-Crime
Link
• Physical properties of the drug cause
aggression
• Economic compulsive model
• Systemic model
Pro-Legalization Response
to Drugs-Crime Link
• Little evidence to show
chemical properties alone
cause violence
• Little evidence for notion
that drugs cause crime could be spurious
relationship
– drugs do increase the
rate of criminal activity
• Cede the evidence of
pattern of violence
associated with illegal
drug markets
Crime
Drugs
??
Prohibitionist’s Arguments
• Public opinion is against legalization
– Can’t legalize what so many oppose
• War on drugs amoral imperative
– we continue to fight, even if are losing
A Third Way:
Between Legalization and Prohibition
• Adopt more reasonable sentences for
drug offenders
• Focus on traffickers, not users
• Provide serious help for users in the
criminal justice system
• Shift law enforcement policies toward
community safety
– away from enforcement to problem solving
policing