Drugs
Illicit Drug Issues
 History
and “Drug Panics”
 Current Use / Trends
 Relationship Between Drug use and Crime
 Drug Control Strategy
 The Legalization Debate
 Theories of Drug Use
What is a “drug?”
A
“psychoactive drug” is one that alters
mood, emotion, perception, or other
mental states


By that definition: alcohol, caffeine and
nicotine count
Also included are Prozac, Ritalin, Vicodin
 Throw

in the “illicit” drugs…
Americans are some fairly serious druggies
A Long History of Substance
Use
 The
use of chemical substances to “get
high” dates back to ancient times



Mesopotamian writings (4,000 years ago)
identify opium as the “plant of joy”
Primitive people during the stone age drank
alcohol
South American Indians chewed coca leaves
since before the time of the Incas
 Until

recently, most drugs legal
Winston Churchill (1912) used a “cocaine
solution”; common “cure all” drugs were opiumbased
Morphine teething drops,
cocaine solutions and so
forth from 1800s
Criminalization of Drugs
 Late
1800s in U.S.
 “Moral Crusaders,” especially religious
 Medical field began to suggest
morphine and opiates were “habitforming” and constituted a “disease”
 The “temperance movement”
 Drug
Laws
 1906
 1914
 1937
Pure Food and Drug Act
Harrison Narcotics Act
Marijuana Taxation Act
Drug Panics/Scares
 Often
precede new criminalization or
heightened penalties

Worst-case scenario  “typical”
 Meth-mouth,

crack babies…
Media sensationalism and hyperbole
 Epidemic,
most addictive drug ever, causes
other bad things…
Drugs and “Dangerous” Folks
 Often
times, the criminalization had
more to do with other concerns
(fear of losing jobs to cheap labor,
racism)
 Marijuana
 Mexicans, Black Jazz
Musicians, etc.
 Opium—Chinese railroad workers
 Crack—inner city blacks
Media example of “Drug Panic”
propaganda
 Harry
Anslinger and the Reefer
Madness era
 What to watch in the film
 Who
are the “dangerous” folks using?
 Exaggeration/hyperbole?
 “Facts” about the drug, damage it
causes, addictiveness…
 Kramer
from Seinfeld
Drug Use / Trends
 Sources:

National Survey on Drug Use and Health
 Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration
 Nationally representative household based
(12+ yrs)

Monitoring the Future Survey
 High
School based (8-12th grade)
 Limitations
of sources?
SAMHSA DATA
Lifetime
(2009)
Past Year Past Month
(2009)
(2009)
Marijuana and Hashish
41.5
11.3
6.6
Cocaine
14.5
1.9
0.7
Crack
3.3
0.4
0.2
Heroin
1.5
0.2
0.1
14.8
1.8
0.5
LSD
9.4
0.3
0.1
Ecstasy
5.7
1.1
0.3
13.9
4.9
2.1
5.1
0.5
0.2
Hallucinogens
Pain Relievers
Methamphetamine
Use
% who used in last 12 months
100
PERCENT
80
8th Grade
10th Grade
12th Grade
60
40
20
0
'74 '76 '78 '80 '82 '84 '86 '88 '90 '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10
YEAR
Illicit Drug use and other Crime
 Strong
correlation (.5-.7) between regular
drug use and crime
 Offenders with substance abuse problems
commit a high percent of some crimes
 75%
of robberies in one study
 Two-thirds
illicit drugs
of those jailed test positive for
Relationships Between Drugs
and Crime
 Drug-defined

Possession and Sales
 Drug-related



offenses
Drug induced rage  assault
Robbery to feed drug habit
 Drug-using

offenses
lifestyle
Crimes relevant to “lifestyle”
Not cause-effect
The “Gateway” issue



Is weed a “gateway” drug for harder drugs?
Is cigarette smoking a gateway to weed?
Gateway implies causality


The use of some drug (nicotine, weed) causes
use of harder drugs independent of other
factors such as peer group, low self-control,
lifestyle…
Is it really the weed that causes people to try
crack cocaine or heroin?

Danger of “DARE” sorts of messages
Drug Control Strategies
 “War
on Drugs” = $600 Billion over past
25 years




•
Source Control
Interdiction
Punishment (Deterrence)
Drug Testing
Different Approaches



Drug Education (non-D.A.R.E.)
Drug Treatment (California’s Prop 36)
Public Health-Harm Reduction Models
Drug Legalization?
 Pro?

Reduce crime by eliminating “drug-defined
crimes”



Reduce Prison Costs
Reduce violence generated by black market
Reduce police corruption (?)
 Con?
Increased drug use and social costs
 Moral costs
Practical Problems with Legalization



Which drugs? Who sells? Minors?
Drug Treatment
 As
with criminal rehabilitation programs,
cognitive behavioral programs have a
track record of success

Cognitive = skill and restructuring
 The
effect of Alcoholics Anonymous and
Narcotics Anonymous is largely unkown

Very resistant to academic research
Drug Courts
 Started
in 1989 in Dade County Florida as
a reaction to crowded jails/court dockets

Spread like wildfire thereafter
 Key




ingredients
Team approach
Judicial involvement in supervision (court
reviews)
Strong treatment component
Quick processing
Drug Court II

Most research has been favorable


Reductions in drug use and other criminal
activity
South St. Louis County (Duluth) MN drug court

Reviewed by one of the best bow hunting
criminologists in the country

Significant reductions in felony offending vs. a
comparison group of people arrested for drug
felonies prior to the existence of drug court
Theories of Drug Use?
 Most
theories of crime can also
explain drug use
 social
learning, social control, strain,
developmental…
UMD: Percent Reporting
Nonmedical Drug Use, by Type of
Drug, Past 12 Months
49.5%
Marijuana
35.1%
Any prescription
drug
24.2%
Prescription
stimulant
16.1%
Prescription pain
med.
10.4%
Other illicit drug
(besides pot)
Prescription
sedative
6.2%
Prescription
sleeping med.
5.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Predicting Use
Variable
Low self-control
Deviant peers
Moral beliefs
Typical offending
School attachment
Grade point average
Involvement in co-curricular
activities
Importance of academic work
Racial and/or ethnic minority
Male
21 years or older
Binge drinking: 1-2 times ††
Binge drinking: 3-5 times††
Binge drinking: 6+ times††
Constant
***p
< .001; **p < .01; *p < .05; †p < .10;
“none”
D.V.: Stimulant Use, Past 12 Months
b
SE
.044*
.032
-.069*
.001
.003
-.584*
.081
†
.375
-.485
-.134
-.120
1.326**
1.609***
1.881***
-2.338
†† Reference
Odds Ratio
.018
.026
.028
.040
.036
.241
.071
1.045
1.032
.933
1.001
1.003
.558
1.085
.204
.389
.243
.233
.405
.405
.456
1.965
1.455
.616
.874
.886
3.767
4.999
6.560
.097
category for this variable is
Logistic Regression Results
Dependent Variable
Prescription
Stimulants
b
(SE)
[Odds Ratio]
Marijuana
b
(SE)
[Odds Ratio]
Other
Prescription
Drugs
b
(SE)
[Odds Ratio]
Low self-control
.044**
(.018)
[1.045]
.043***
(.016)
[1.044]
.056***
(.019)
[1.058]
Moral beliefs
-.069**
(.028)
[.933]
-.089***
(.027)
[.915]
Independent
Variable
Deviant Peers
Other Illicit
Drugs
b
(SE)
[Odds Ratio]
-.105***
(.036)
[.901]
.049*
(.028)
[1.051]
Grade point
average
-.584**
(.241)
.558]
Importance of
academic work
.375*
(.204)
[1.455]
-.471**
(.222)
.[625]
***p
< .01; **p < .05; *p < .10