DOCSLIB.ORG

The US Drug Policy Landscape

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The US Drug Policy Landscape DRUG POLICY RESEARCH CENTER CHILDREN AND FAMILIES The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and EDUCATION AND THE ARTS decisionmaking through research and analysis. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE This electronic document was made available from www.rand.org as a public service INFRASTRUCTURE AND of the RAND Corporation. TRANSPORTATION INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS LAW AND BUSINESS Skip all front matter: Jump to Page 16 NATIONAL SECURITY POPULATION AND AGING PUBLIC SAFETY Support RAND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Purchase this document TERRORISM AND Browse Reports & Bookstore HOMELAND SECURITY Make a charitable contribution For More Information Visit RAND at www.rand.org Explore the RAND Drug Policy Research Center View document details Limited Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non- commercial use only. Unauthorized posting of RAND electronic documents to a non-RAND website is prohibited. RAND electronic documents are protected under copyright law. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please see RAND Permissions. This product is part of the RAND Corporation occasional paper series. RAND occa- sional papers may include an informed perspective on a timely policy issue, a discussion of new research methodologies, essays, a paper presented at a conference, a conference summary, or a summary of work in progress. All RAND occasional papers undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity. The U.S. Drug Policy Landscape Insights and Opportunities for Improving the View Beau Kilmer, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Peter H. Reuter DRUG POLICY RESEARCH CENTER This research was sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and was conducted within the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, a joint endeavor of RAND Health and RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012947920 ISBN 978-0-8330-7699-1 The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. R® is a registered trademark. © Copyright 2012 RAND Corporation Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND documents to a non-RAND website is prohibited. RAND documents are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND permissions page (http://www.rand.org/publications/ permissions.html). Published 2012 by the RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050 4570 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2665 RAND URL: http://www.rand.org To order RAND documents or to obtain additional information, contact Distribution Services: Telephone: (310) 451-7002; Fax: (310) 451-6915; Email: [email protected] Preface Discussions about reducing the harms associated with drug use and antidrug policies are often politicized, infused with questionable data, and unproductive. In this occasional paper, researchers provide a nonpartisan primer on the topic that should be of interest to those who are new to the field of drug policy, as well as those who have been working in the trenches. This project was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the views presented here reflect only those of the authors. This study was conducted under the auspices of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. The goal of the Drug Policy Research Center is to provide a firm, empirical foundation on which sound drug policies can be built, at the local and national levels. The center’s work is supported by foundations, government agencies, corporations, and individuals. We are indebted to Nicholas M. Pace (RAND) and Harold Pollack (University of Chi- cago) for their constructive reviews. The paper also benefited from comments made by James Burgdorf (RAND), Keith Humphreys (Stanford University), and Sarah Lawrence (University of California, Berkeley). Questions or comments about this paper should be sent to the project leader, Beau Kilmer ([email protected]). Information about the Drug Policy Research Center is available online (http://www.rand.org/multi/dprc/). Inquiries about research projects should be made to the center’s co-directors, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula ([email protected]) and Beau Kilmer ([email protected]). iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figures ...........................................................................................................vii Summary ........................................................................................................ ix Abbreviations ..................................................................................................xiii CHapTER ONE Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 CHapTER TWO The Drug Policy Landscape in the United States ......................................................... 3 Drug Use .......................................................................................................... 3 Designer Drugs................................................................................................. 5 Drug Problems ................................................................................................... 6 The Economic Burden of Drug Use ......................................................................... 6 Observation 1: Prescription Drugs Account for an Increasing Share of the Nation’s Drug Problem .................................................................................................... 7 Observation 2: Cocaine Accounts for a Decreasing Share of the Nation’s Drug Problem ............ 8 Observation 3: U.S. Demand for Drugs is Fueling Violence and Corruption in Mexico and Central America ........................................................................................... 9 Drug Policy in the United States ..............................................................................10 Government Spending on Drug Policy ....................................................................10 Domestic Law Enforcement .................................................................................10 Interdiction ....................................................................................................11 International Efforts ..........................................................................................12 Prevention ......................................................................................................12 Treatment ......................................................................................................13 Recent Change 1: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) ...........................13 Recent Change 2: Federal Response to Medical Marijuana .............................................14 CHapTER THREE Efficacy of U.S. Drug Policies and Programs .............................................................17 Supply Reduction ...............................................................................................17 Management of Market-Related Harms .....................................................................19 Treatment ....................................................................................................... 20 Other Interventions with Dependent Users ................................................................. 22 v vi The U.S. Drug Policy Landscape: Insights and Opportunities for Improving the View Prevention ....................................................................................................... 23 Topics Meriting Additional Attention ....................................................................... 24 CHapTER FOUR The Drug Policy Research Funding Landscape ..........................................................25 Government Agencies ..........................................................................................25 National Institutes of Health (NIH) .......................................................................25 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) .......................... 26 U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA) ............................................................ 26 White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) .................................... 26 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) ................................. 27 Other Government Agencies ............................................................................... 27 Foundations ..................................................................................................... 27 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) .......................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Public Housing in a Competitive Market
    _________________________________________________________________ PUBLIC HOUSING IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET: An Example of How It Would Fare _________________________________________________________________ April, 1996 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research Division of Policy Studies FOREWORD During the last several years, a bipartisan consensus has emerged around the twin goals of significantly reducing the Federal deficit and substantially deregulating the Nation’s public housing system. Together, these changes in the Federal policy environment require public housing authorities to dramatically rethink their operating and management practices. With operating and capital dollars shrinking, optimizing the use of these resources will become increasingly important. This report, originally conceived to inform the Administrations’ proposal to replace the present system of public housing subsidies with portable, tenant-based assistance, provides housing authorities with a solid framework for making more strategic asset management and operating decisions. The report examines the local and Federal impacts of changing public housing in a major city -- Baltimore, Maryland -- to a tenant-assisted, market-based system. It attempts to model program outcomes in an environment in which most Federal regulations would be eliminated and operating subsidies terminated. It assumes current public housing residents in Baltimore would receive a fully-funded housing certificate/voucher that would enable them to
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking America's Illegal Drug Policy
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES RETHINKING AMERICA'S ILLEGAL DRUG POLICY John J. Donohue III Benjamin Ewing David Peloquin Working Paper 16776 http://www.nber.org/papers/w16776 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 February 2011 The authors wish to thank Jonathan Caulkins, Phil Cook, Louis Kaplow, Rob MacCoun, Jeffrey Miron, Peter Reuter, and participants at two NBER conferences and the Harvard Law School Law and Economics workshop for valuable comments. We are also particularly grateful to Jeffrey Miron and Angela Dills for sharing their national time series data on drug prohibition enforcement and crime. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. © 2011 by John J. Donohue III, Benjamin Ewing, and David Peloquin. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Rethinking America's Illegal Drug Policy John J. Donohue III, Benjamin Ewing, and David Peloquin NBER Working Paper No. 16776 February 2011, Revised March 2011 JEL No. K0 ABSTRACT This paper provides a critical review of the empirical and theoretical literatures on illegal drug policy, including cross-country comparisons, in order to evaluate three drug policy regimes: criminalization, legalization and “depenalization.” Drawing on the experiences of various states, as well as countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands, the paper attempts to identify cost-minimizing policies for marijuana and cocaine by assessing the differing ways in which the various drug regimes would likely change the magnitude and composition of the social costs of each drug.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dimensions of Public Policy in Private International Law
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery The Dimensions of Public Policy in Private International Law Alex Mills* Accepted version: Published in (2008) 4 Journal of Private International Law 201 1 The problem of public policy in private international law National courts always retain the power to refuse to apply a foreign law or recognise or enforce a foreign judgment on the grounds of inconsistency with public policy. The law which would ordinarily be applicable under choice of law rules may, for example, be denied application where it is “manifestly incompatible with the public policy (‘ordre public’) of the forum”1, and a foreign judgment may be refused recognition on the grounds that, for example, “such recognition is manifestly contrary to public policy in the [state] in which recognition is sought”2. The existence of such a discretion is recognised in common law rules, embodied in statutory codifications of private international law3, including those operating between European states otherwise bound by principles of mutual trust, and is a standard feature of international conventions on private international law4. It has even been suggested that it is a general principle of law which can thus be implied in private international law treaties which are silent on the issue5. The public policy exception is not only ubiquitous6, but also a fundamentally important element of modern private international law. As a ‘safety net’ to choice of law rules and rules governing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, it is a doctrine which crucially defines the outer limits of the ‘tolerance of difference’ implicit in those rules7.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward Automated Policy Classification Using Judicial Corpora
    Learning Policy Levers: Toward Automated Policy Classification Using Judicial Corpora Elliott Ash, Daniel L. Chen, Raúl Delgado, Eduardo Fierro, Shasha Lin ∗ August 10, 2018 Abstract To build inputs for end-to-end machine learning estimates of the causal impacts of law, we consider the problem of automatically classifying cases by their policy impact. We propose and implement a semi-supervised multi-class learning model, with the training set being a hand-coded dataset of thousands of cases in over 20 politically salient policy topics. Using opinion text features as a set of predictors, our model can classify labeled cases by topic correctly 91% of the time. We then take the model to the broader set of unlabeled cases and show that it can identify new groups of cases by shared policy impact. 1 Introduction A vast amount of research on judicial decisions aims at elucidating their cause and impact. In this light, judges are generally not perceived as passive ’oracles of law’, as William Blackstone had suggested (see Posner (2011)), but as human beings that are influenced by their ideological beliefs (Sunstein et al., 2006) or strategic preferences (Epstein et al., 2013; Stephenson, 2009). Federal judges do not only interpret the law in this reading, but also create it (Epstein et al., 2013). It is further clear that judicial decisions can have wide ramifications. It has for example been demonstrated that ∗Elliott Ash, Assistant Professor of Law, Economics, and Data Science, ETH Zurich, [email protected]. Daniel L. Chen, Professor of Economics, University of Toulouse, [email protected]. We thank Theodor Borrmann for helpful research assistance.
    [Show full text]
  • (“Quasi-Experimental”) Study Designs Are Most Likely to Produce Valid Estimates of a Program’S Impact?
    Which Comparison-Group (“Quasi-Experimental”) Study Designs Are Most Likely to Produce Valid Estimates of a Program’s Impact?: A Brief Overview and Sample Review Form Originally published by the Coalition for Evidence- Based Policy with funding support from the William T. Grant Foundation and U.S. Department of Labor, January 2014 Updated by the Arnold Ventures Evidence-Based Policy team, December 2018 This publication is in the public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part for educational purposes is granted. We welcome comments and suggestions on this document ([email protected]). Brief Overview: Which Comparison-Group (“Quasi-Experimental”) Studies Are Most Likely to Produce Valid Estimates of a Program’s Impact? I. A number of careful investigations have been carried out to address this question. Specifically, a number of careful “design-replication” studies have been carried out in education, employment/training, welfare, and other policy areas to examine whether and under what circumstances non-experimental comparison-group methods can replicate the results of well- conducted randomized controlled trials. These studies test comparison-group methods against randomized methods as follows. For a particular program being evaluated, they first compare program participants’ outcomes to those of a randomly-assigned control group, in order to estimate the program’s impact in a large, well- implemented randomized design – widely recognized as the most reliable, unbiased method of assessing program impact. The studies then compare the same program participants with a comparison group selected through methods other than randomization, in order to estimate the program’s impact in a comparison-group design.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Policy Overreaction As a Risky Policy Investment
    International Review of Public Policy 1:1 | 2019 Regular Issue Strategic Policy Overreaction as a Risky Policy Investment Moshe Maor Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/irpp/277 DOI: 10.4000/irpp.277 ISSN: 2706-6274 Publisher International Public Policy Association Printed version Date of publication: 17 June 2019 Number of pages: 46-64 ISSN: 2679-3873 Electronic reference Moshe Maor, « Strategic Policy Overreaction as a Risky Policy Investment », International Review of Public Policy [Online], 1:1 | 2019, Online since 17 June 2019, connection on 05 October 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/irpp/277 ; DOI : 10.4000/irpp.277 International Review of Public Policy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. International Review of Public Policy, Vol. 1, N°1, 46-64, 2019, http://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.277 Strategic Policy Overreaction as a Risky Policy Investment Moshe Maor The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract Policy overreaction is a policy that imposes objective and/or perceived social costs without producing offsetting objective and/or perceived benefits. It is therefore an objective fact and, at the same time, a matter of interpretation. Policy scholars tend to view this duality as a prob- lematic ontological issue and to categorize such policies as errors of commission or omission. This article builds on (i)the aforementioned duality and (ii)a recent conceptual turn whereby this concept is re-entering the policy lexicon as a type of deliberate policy choice. This may be motivated by, among other factors, political executives’ desire to pander to public opinion, ap- pear informed to voters, and signal extremity.
    [Show full text]
  • Policy and Legislative Research for Congressional Staff: Finding Documents, Analysis, News, and Training
    Policy and Legislative Research for Congressional Staff: Finding Documents, Analysis, News, and Training Updated June 28, 2019 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R43434 Policy and Legislative Research for Congressional Staff Summary This report is intended to serve as a finding aid for congressional documents, executive branch documents and information, news articles, policy analysis, contacts, and training, for use in policy and legislative research. It is not intended to be a definitive list of all resources, but rather a guide to pertinent subscriptions available in the House and Senate in addition to selected resources freely available to the public. This report is intended for use by congressional staff and will be updated as needed. Congressional Research Service Policy and Legislative Research for Congressional Staff Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Congressional Documents ............................................................................................................... 1 Executive Branch Documents and Information ............................................................................... 9 Legislative Support Agencies ........................................................................................................ 12 News, Policy, and Scholarly Research Sources ............................................................................. 13 Training and
    [Show full text]
  • Public Policy with a Human Rights Approach
    Cover Art Concept Public-policy design must seek structural impact for the prevention and non-repetition of human rights violations, the report says. In that context, human rights must be taken as the central axis of the whole process to design, implement, monitor and evaluate public policy, which must also aim to strengthen democratic institutions. The cover addresses public-policy generation focused on human beings, in all their diversity. It features architectural references of government buildings around the region—as symbols of the public policies that need to be built—with people working on their construction. Diversity also involves acknowledging that certain population groups need special equalizing measures. Cover design: Anto Fraccaro / IACHR OAS/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 191 15 September 2018 Original: English INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Public Policy with a Human Rights Approach 2018 iachr.org OAS Cataloging-in-Publication Data Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Public policy with a human rights approach : approved by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights on September 15, 2018. p. ; cm. (OAS. Official records ; OEA/Ser.L) ISBN 978-0-8270-6841-4 1. Human rights. 2. Civil rights. I. Title. II. Series. OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc.191/18 INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Members Margarette May Macaulay Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva Joel Hernández García Antonia Urrejola Flávia Piovesan Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão Assistant Executive Secretary for Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation María Claudia Pulido Chief of Staff of the Executive Secretariat of the IACHR Marisol Blanchard Vera Approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on September 15, 2018 INDEX CHAPTER 1 | INTRODUCTION 9 A.
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Analysis
    CapacityDevelopment RESOURCE GUIDE POLICY ANALYSIS July 2014 The Capacity Development Resource Guides highlight the key technical areas of expertise needed to effectively influence health policy design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Each guide identifies the specific skills, knowledge, and capacities that individuals and organizations should possess in the area. The standardized indicators listed for each competency and capability map to the accompanying Capacity Indicators Catalog, which helps to generate a tailored tool for assessing and scoring an organization’s capacity level. Each guide also includes a list of useful resources for designing and delivering capacity development assistance. Conducting Policy Analysis to Inform Decision Making DEFINITION Policy analysis has various meanings (Walt and Gilson, 1994). In this guide, policy analysis refers to the process through which policy solutions to social problems and public health issues are identified, analyzed, and presented to policymakers for consideration. RELEVANCE Policymakers weigh their decisions on myriad criteria. Policy analysis involves TO POLICY conducting data analysis to inform and support decisions based on the technical aspects of an issue; but it also requires an analysis of the political and financial costs and benefits of policy reform (Thomas and Grindle, 1994). Policy analysis includes identifying the need for policy, assessing the pros and cons of current policy language, identifying new or revised policy approaches, identifying opportunities for advocacy, and monitoring policy implementation; the steps of the process are not always linear and may need to be repeated (Bardach, 2011). KEY Policy analysis is an important area of expertise for researchers, officials who CAPABILITIES formulate or evaluate policy implementation, health advocates, investigative journalists, and other policy stakeholders.
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Analysis Toolkit
    POLICY ANALYSIS TOOLKIT A guide for researchers on being policy-relevant Table of Contents Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Overview: Traditional Research vs. Policy Analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Targeting Analysis by Policymaking Phase ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Public Policymaking Process in the United States -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Example Research Questions by Policymaking Phase --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Example Policy Variables --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Developing Cost Measures for Policy Analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 Policy Implementation: Understanding the Rulemaker’s Perspective ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Studying Health Policies and Reforms ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Example Topics for Policy Analysis from the Affordable Care Act ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [Show full text]
  • An Analytical Framework for Policy Practice: a Value Perspective Jane Hayes, Doctoral Candidate
    ______________________________________________________________________________ An Analytical Framework for Policy Practice: A Value Perspective Jane Hayes, Doctoral Candidate Introduction Today, the social work profession is challenged to reflect on its commitment to policy practice in the context of a conservative political ideology (Dubois & Krogsrud-Miley, 2005; Karger & Stoesz, 2006) that has and continues to dominate the national dialogue. This conservative political ideology shaped the devolution policies of the 1980s and the more recent fiscal and social welfare policies of both Republican and Democratic administrations. These policy trends contributed to an erosion of public funding for public and private social services (Gronbjerg & Salamon, 2002), eliminated cash entitlements for families with dependent children (Schneider, 2002), and opened up a debate on the viability and future of the Social Security Act of 1935. As a result of such trends, social work must consider policy practice as integral to social work in its assessment of the impact of these conservative policies on the most vulnerable of populations with whom the profession works. 9 Copyright University of Houston, 2007 Historically, the social work profession has been committed to the humanistic value of individual freedom and the democratic ideals of civic and social responsibility (Agnew, 2004). Individual freedom emphasizes the individualistic perspective of self-determination, choice, and personal responsibility; while, the democratic ideals of civic and social responsibility emphasize service and social justice (Agnew; Specht & Courtney, 1994). As the profession enters the 21st century, Ife (1997) states: At the core of social work is a vision of humanity. This is expressed in various ways: the social work commitment to the worth of the individual; the continual reference to some idea of social justice; [and] the code of ethics that enshrines the values of humanism … (p.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons Learnt, and Options for the Future
    Drug Policy – Lessons Learnt, and Options for the Future Mike Trace * * Chairman, International Drug Policy Consortium. Former Deputy UK Drug Czar, President of the European Monitoring Centre onDrugs and Drug Addiction, and Chief of UNODC Demand Reduction Section. 1 Abstract After almost 100 years of international drug control agreements, that have pursued prohibitions on the production, distribution and use of some psychoactive substances, questions about the efficacy, and even the validity, of these strategies are growing louder. It seems clear that the objective of a „drug free world‟ - or at least a significantly reduced illegal market in plant based drugs such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis, and synthetically produced drugs such as ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD – is as far away as ever. This paper examines why the vision of the architects of the global prohibition regime has not been achieved, but also goes on to describe the damage to human health and welfare that has arisen from badly conceived and implemented drug control policies and programmes. The author goes on to analyse the political and institutional barriers to objective review and modernisation of drug policies at national government level, and at the United Nations. Finally, the concluding section lays out the broad options that policy makers face for a future „direction of travel‟. What is the ‘logical framework’ behind the current international drug control regime? What objectives does it set out to achieve, and what assumptions have been made about how best to meet these objectives? The international community has experienced almost 100 years of international drug control agreements since The Hague Convention was adopted in 1912.
    [Show full text]