Drugs and crime

There is undoubtedly a strong relationship between drugs and crime. Drugs are heavily implicated in a wide variety and large volume of criminal activity, although the nature of the relationship is somewhat complicated. The links between drugs and criminal behavior are manifold, and a number of theories exist that attempt to explain different aspects of the relationship. Evidence suggests that those who use drugs are generally more involved in (other) criminal activity than the non-drug using population; that those who are involved in (other) crime are more likely to use drugs than the general population, and; that drug markets often overlap with, and even necessitate, other types of criminal behavior. The relationship between drugs and crime varies, with different drugs (legal and illegal) being more closely related to different types of criminal activity.

LA LEY 13423/2018 Resumen La conceptualización de lo que se entiende como droga tóxica, estupefaciente o sustancias psicotrópica, es fundamental para entender lo que se prohíbe en el artículo 368 del Código Penal. En este trabajo se pretende precisar si el concepto de droga desde el punto de vista médico-farmacológico se corresponde con lo que se entiende como droga ilícita efectos penales. I. Consideraciones previas El consumo de sustancias que alteran el estado de conciencia ha sido una práctica realizada desde la antigüedad por las diferentes culturas, para completar los ritos, para el placer o la evasión (1). En este sentido, se señala que existen indicios de la utilización de cannabis en el año 4000 a. C. en Asia central y el noroeste de China y se han hallado documentos escritos de su utilización en el año 2700 a. C. en la farmacopea del emperador Chen-Nong (2). A partir de estas fechas, su consumo se extendió progresivamente en diversas partes del mundo. De igual forma, respecto al cultivo y el uso de la hoja de coca, se señala que en la región andina apareció en el año 3000 a. C. Fue así que, cuando en el siglo XVI los conquistadores españoles llegaron a América, «el cultivo de la hoja de coca y su consumo se habían extendido del norte de la región andina a América Central (hasta Nicaragua), el Caribe (La Española, esto es, los territorios de la actual Republica Dominicana y Haití) y a lo largo de la costa atlántica hasta Venezuela y Guyana« (3). Ahora bien, así como antiguas son las drogas, así también su abuso y daños vinculados con éstas, ya que finalmente los riesgos «son inherentes a las moléculas y al sistema nervioso humano con el que interactúan» (4). No en vano se puede recordar como en el siglo XIX el comercio descontrolado durante más de cien años de opio en China, tuvo terribles consecuencias para el país, no sólo sociales, sino también en materia de salud (5). Con la urbanización y la industrialización se ha incrementado la cantidad de daño asociado al abuso de las drogas, tanto para el consumidor como respecto a los demás. En efecto, la drogadicción en las últimas décadas ha adquirido una rotunda importancia «por su difusión, consecuencias sociales y sanitarias» (6). Todo lo anterior sin duda está vinculado con las características de la actual sociedad industrial y de consumo (7). En efecto, el siglo XIX, a través de la química orgánica, generó la posibilidad de «producir productos refinados a partir de materiales vegetales (incluyendo la morfina y la cocaína), y potentes moléculas sintéticas o semisintéticas (como las anfetaminas y la heroína)» (8). Es así como hasta el siglo XIX muchas de las sustancias psicoactivas se usaron de forma natural, pero con la química moderna muchos

Report about the Maui-Molokai Adult Drug Court, which I created and which achieved over 12 years an 84% success rate for graduates, measured by whether a graduate committed another felony crime.  The program has  many innovative features, not utilized by other drug courts.  So far as I know, this is the only article that describes evolution of a drug court.

In November 2018, the New South Wales government rushed a new homicide offence of "drug supply causing death" through Parliament. It is now a crime-punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment for a person to supply a prohibited drug for financial gain where another person self-administers the drug and dies. The offence was implemented in response to drug-related deaths at music festivals. While similar provisions exist in the United States, the crime of drug supply causing death is the first of its kind to be enacted in Australia. This article critically examines the new offence. I critique the haste with which the legislation was introduced and identify problems that may arise in relation to prosecutions, especially with regard to proof of causation and mens rea. I argue that this "law and order" response to drug-related harms is not only unjustified; it may also do more harm than good.

This chapter questions the often self-evident association of drugs with crime, in the case of Greece during the first decades of the 20th century, i.e. during the period when drug-trafficking and drug-use –until then licit and socially acceptable practices– became illicit and reprehensible activities. Firstly, I present the gradual stiffening of official attitudes towards narcotics and the outlines of their prohibition in the Greek state, from the initial measures against cannabis use at the end of the 19th century to the inclusive prohibitive laws and the creation of a State Monopoly on Narcotics during the Interwar period. Then, I examine the major arguments of the “moral entrepreneurs”, in Howard Becker’s terms, who agreed almost unanimously on the criminogenic action of psychoactive substances, setting an ineluctable trajectory for the users. Next, I briefly address the main categories of crimes where drug-users were implicated according to contemporary newspapers. Finally, I analyse those discourses, focusing on certain stereotypical expressions, such as “hashish smokers and crooks” or “drug-addicts and thugs”, that became gradually detached from the signified and ended up being used as anthropological categories, regardless of the actual hashish or other drugs’ use.

El estudio de la relación droga delito puede ser desglosado en dos ejes temporales. Por un lado, están aquellos estudios que buscan determinar de qué manera la droga influye en un momento en el tiempo en la producción del delito, es decir, analizando la relación droga delito en un delito específico (Valenzuela & Larroulet, 2010). Por otro lado, están aquellos estudios que buscan determinar de qué manera el consumo de drogas puede influir en la formación y desarrollo de una trayectoria delictual. El siguiente estudio analizará la relación droga-delito enfocándose en este segundo eje. Se realizará un análisis detallado de la iniciación en el delito, utilizando diversos indicadores de inicio (inicio en distintos tipos de delitos) y de consumo de drogas (tipo de droga y frecuencia de consumo), para determinar una fracción atribuible al inicio de las carreras delictuales. La pregunta que busca resolver este trabajo es si existen diferencias entre quienes se inician primero en el consumo de drogas que en la actividad delictual. De esta manera, el trabajo tendrá como objetivos (1) estimar el porcentaje de jóvenes que se ha iniciado en el consumo de drogas antes que en la comisión de delitos (2) establecer si existen diferencias en cuanto al tipo de atribución entre quienes se inician antes en el delito y quienes no y finalmente (3) analizar diferencias en las características del inicio en el delito de quienes se iniciaron en droga antes que en el delito con respecto a quienes se inician en delito sin haberse iniciado en drogas. Los datos empleados corresponden a una encuesta realizada a una muestra de jóvenes infractores de ley que en 2012 se encontraban cumpliendo condenas en centros cerrados, semi cerrados y programas de libertad asistida (PLE y PLA) de las regiones V, VI y Metropolitana (N=967).

This study aimed at investigating the predictors of hard drug dealing crimes among Mexican students. Tests of difference and ordinal regression were employed to explore group differences and predictors of hard drug dealing crimes. The sample included 14,306 last-year high school students nationwide. Results show that 3.5% of the students surveyed admittedly reported to have been involved in a drug dealing crime of an illegal substance different from Marijuana. Several factors were found to decrease the odds of a student to get involved in a hard drug crime. Federal policy implications and solutions are provided.

The world heroin market today commands an estimated annual market value of US$55 billion and affects around 12 million people. After a short description of the current state of the world heroin market and its basic properties—matu-rity, segmentation, and elasticity—this chapter briefly outlines the history of heroin consumption and its regulation over the last 150 years. Historically, most interventions in the heroin market sought to curb its availability and consumption by using either vinegar (incarcerating drug sellers and users) or honey (diverting addicts to treatment). However, there is no conclusive evidence that either way is effective in reducing the number of heroin users and addicts; to a large extent, drugs become popular or fall out of fashion due to the natural history of epidemics and other social and cultural factors. Thus, the traditional drug policy goal of addressing the root cause—reducing the number of heroin users—is largely misplaced. Currently, many scholars conceive of " harm reduction " as an overarching goal of drug policy. As health-oriented harm reduction does not aim to curtail drug use per se but reduce some of its harmful consequences, criminological harm reduction applied to drug-related crime does not aim to prevent violation of drug laws per se but rather to prevent certain harmful consequences of drug use and sales. We then use the influential Goldstein model of drug-related crime to show how harm reduction principles can be applied to heroin-related drug crime.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between drug use and offending by using the concept of critical moments as an analytical tool. Design/methodology/approach In total, 41 semi-structured individual interviews with young people (15–25 years) using drugs and in touch with the criminal justice system (CJS) were conducted. Findings Analysing critical moments in young people’s drug use contributes to explaining some of the multiple, possible links between drug use and offending. Institutional factors emerged as important, as well as social and economic inequality. This was in particular clear when comparing students’ and immigrants’ trajectories. Research limitations/implications Limitations are due to the difficulties in getting access to prisoners and young people in touch with the CJS and the possibility to meet them only once with time limits due to the setting. Practical implications Prevention intervention addressed to this target group could take youn...

En el año 2005, 32.1% de una muestra de reclusos en 21 cárceles del Distrito Federal y
del Estado de México reportó haber consumido alguna sustancia legal o ilegal, es decir,
alcohol o droga (marihuana, inhalantes, cocaína, crack, pastillas, solventes, morfina,
heroína, etc.), durante las seis horas previas a cometer el o los delitos por los que se
encontraban presos. 1 En 2006 y 2007, se encontró en el Distrito Federal un consumo de
drogas y/o bebidas alcohólicas en 8 837 autopsias realizadas; una cifra impresionante y
sobre la cual también comentan las autoridades locales que las muertes violentas han
estado aumentando. 2 Luego en 2008, el alcalde municipal de Nezahualcóyotl (un
municipio conurbado de la zona metropolitana de la ciudad de México y que es parte del
Estado de México) propone realizar pruebas antidoping en las escuelas públicas …

Hypothesis: The lack of information management/sharing between organizations is the largest threat to the posterity of the United States. The 5 June 2010 announcement of Lt. GEN Clapper as the 4th Director of National Intelligence in the five years highlights how governmental organizations find that information is a tool to be used to establish power and influence, not to provide for the common defense. Narco-terrorist organizations, such as the Los Zetas, routinely subvert the efforts of the United States through the manipulation of seams between Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, Multi-National (JIIM) Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies. This document provides an assessment as to why the Intelligence Community is failing.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between drug use and offending by using the concept of critical moments as an analytical tool. Design/methodology/approach In total, 41 semi-structured individual interviews with young people (15–25 years) using drugs and in touch with the criminal justice system (CJS) were conducted. Findings Analysing critical moments in young people’s drug use contributes to explaining some of the multiple, possible links between drug use and offending. Institutional factors emerged as important, as well as social and economic inequality. This was in particular clear when comparing students’ and immigrants’ trajectories. Research limitations/implications Limitations are due to the difficulties in getting access to prisoners and young people in touch with the CJS and the possibility to meet them only once with time limits due to the setting. Practical implications Prevention intervention addressed to this target group could take youn...

Se examinan los patrones y procesos geográficos del narcomenudeo y se ofrecen elementos para una discusión preliminar sobre las recomendaciones de política y las estrategias territoriales para lograr su efectiva erradicación. La información base de este estudio proviene de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del Distrito Federal en México, y se refie-re al número de detenidos por narcomenudeo entre 2005 y 2007. El análisis geográfico se concentra en las colonias y cuadrantes de la delegación Cuauhtémoc. Se aplica una variedad de métodos estadísticos espaciales y a-espaciales. Se detectan y reportan los lu-gares (hotspots) en donde la intervención de la policía reduciría de forma estadística-mente significativa la ocurrencia de este delito. Al ser el narcomenudeo un delito geográ-ficamente concentrado y principalmente inmóvil, al menos en el corto plazo, se sugiere que es baja la probabilidad de una difusión contagiosa o relocalización (efecto cucaracha) de puntos de venta hacia colonias vecinas de la misma delegación. Palabras clave: geografía, actividad criminal, narcomenudeo, México. Fecha de recepción: 23 de junio de 2008. Fecha de aceptación: 29 de septiembre de 2008. The Local Geography of Retail Drug-Dealing: Patterns, Processes and Urban Policy Recommendations This study examines the geographical patterns and processes of retail drug dealing and offers elements for a preliminary discussion of policy recommendations and territorial strategies for its effective eradication. The base information for this study, provided by the Public Security Secretariat in the Federal District in Mexico City, comprises the number of those arrested for retail drug-dealing between 2005 and 2007. The geographical analysis focuses on the neighborhoods and districts of delegación Cuauhtémoc. A variety of spatial and aspatial statistical methods were used. The hotspots where police intervention would significantly reduce the occurrence of this crime were detected and reported.

This study aimed at investigating the predictors of hard drug dealing crimes among Mexican students. Tests of difference and ordinal regression were employed to explore group differences and predictors of hard drug dealing crimes. The sample included 14,306 last-year high school students nationwide. Results show that 3.5% of the students surveyed admittedly reported to have been involved in a drug dealing crime of an illegal substance different from Marijuana. Several factors were found to decrease the odds of a student to get involved in a hard drug crime. Federal policy implications and solutions are provided.