NCJ Number
181984
Date Published
1999
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The harms associated with illicit drug trafficking, perhaps the most widespread form of transnational crime, can be reduced and even eliminated by decriminalizing all forms of the drug trade.
Abstract
The illicit drug trade has not been reduced by the prohibition effort; indeed, the high profits in the trade are largely traceable to the prohibition effort. Also, the most serious security threat to democratic institutions is not drug trafficking itself, but rather the tactics adopted by law enforcement agencies in attempting to stop drug trafficking and drug use. Ending the prohibition strategy will have a number of beneficial effects. It would bring the international trade in the commodities (heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and synthetic drugs) into the normal course of trade and contribute to tax revenues and gross national product. Further, it would serve to marginalize, reduce, or eliminate criminal cartels and organizations, diminishing their capability to underwrite other criminal activity. This would in turn reduce the corruptive power of criminal organizations. The repeal of prohibition would reduce the violence and social displacement directly connected to the current drug trafficking system and indirectly reduce property crime. It would substantially cut the costs of the law enforcement and justice system and release public funds for educational and health care programs that have proven to be the most effective way to reduce drug dependency and addiction. It will reorient the thinking about addictive and self-harmful behavior and make it possible to promote a policy of shifting the deleterious cost of drug use and abuse to those who profit from it. 33 notes