U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in a training exercise
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments
regulate the manufacture, distribution, marketing, sale and use of
certain drugs, for instance through a prescription system. For example, amphetamines
may be legal to possess if a doctor has prescribed them; otherwise,
possession or sale of the drug is typically a criminal offence. Only
certain drugs are banned with a "blanket prohibition" against all
possession or use (e.g., LSD). The most widely banned substances include psychoactive drugs, although blanket prohibition also extends to some steroids
and other drugs. Many governments do not criminalize the possession of a
limited quantity of certain drugs for personal use, while still
prohibiting their sale or manufacture, or possession in large
quantities. Some laws set a specific volume of a particular drug, above
which is considered ipso jure to be evidence of trafficking or sale of the drug.
Some Islamic countries prohibit the use of alcohol (see list of countries with alcohol prohibition). Many governments levy a sin tax on alcohol and tobacco products, and restrict alcohol and tobacco from being sold or gifted to a minor. Other common restrictions include bans on outdoor drinking and indoor smoking. In the early 20th century, many countries had alcohol prohibition. These include the United States (1920–1933), Finland (1919–1932), Norway (1916–1927), Canada (1901–1948), Iceland (1915–1922) and the Russian Empire/USSR (1914–1925).
Definitions
Drugs, in the context of prohibition, are any of a number of psychoactive substances whose use a government or religious body seeks to control. What constitutes a drug varies by century and belief system. What is a psychoactive substance is relatively well known to modern science. Examples include a range from caffeine found in coffee, tea, and chocolate, nicotine in tobacco products; botanical extracts morphine and heroin, and synthetic compounds MDMA and Fentanyl. Almost without exception, these substances also have a medical use, in which case it is called a Pharmaceutical drug or just pharmaceutical. The use of medicine to save or extend life or to alleviate suffering is uncontroversial in most cultures. Prohibition applies to certain conditions of possession or use. Recreational use refers to the use of substances primarily for their psychoactive effect outside of a clinical situation or doctor's care.
In the twenty-first century, caffeine has pharmaceutical uses. Caffeine is used to treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
In most cultures, caffeine in the form of coffee or tea is
unregulated. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world
every day. Some religions, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prohibit coffee. They believe that it is both physically and spiritually unhealthy to consume coffee.
A government's interest to control a drug may be based on its
perceived negative effects on its users, or it may simply have a revenue
interest. Great Britain prohibited the possession of untaxed tea with
the imposition of the Tea Act of 1773.
In this case, as in many others, it is not substance that is
prohibited, but the conditions under which it is possessed or consumed.
Those conditions include matters of intent, which makes the enforcement
of laws difficult. In Colorado possession of "blenders, bowls,
containers, spoons, and mixing devices" is illegal if there was intent to use them with drugs.
Many drugs, beyond their pharmaceutical and recreational uses have industrial uses. Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas is a dental anaesthetic, also used to prepare whipped cream, fuel rocket engines, and enhance the performance of race cars.
History
The cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive and other drugs
has occurred since ancient times. Concurrently, authorities have often
restricted drug possession and trade for a variety of political and
religious reasons. In the 20th century, the United States led a major
renewed surge in drug prohibition called the "War on Drugs".
Today's War on Drugs is particularly motivated by the desire to prevent
drug use, which is perceived as detrimental to society.
Early drug laws
Huichol religion worshiped the god of Peyote, a drug.
The prohibition on alcohol under Islamic Sharia law, which is usually attributed to passages in the Qur'an, dates back to the 7th century. Although Islamic law is often interpreted as prohibiting all intoxicants (not only alcohol), the ancient practice of hashish smoking has continued throughout the history of Islam, against varying degrees of resistance. A major campaign against hashish-eating Sufis was conducted in Egypt in the 11th and 12th centuries resulting among other things in the burning of fields of cannabis.
Though the prohibition of illegal drugs was established under Sharia law, particularly against the use of hashish as a recreational drug, classical jurists of medieval Islamic jurisprudence accepted the use of hashish for medicinal and therapeutic purposes, and agreed that its "medical use, even if it leads to mental derangement,
should remain exempt [from punishment]". In the 14th century, the
Islamic scholar Az-Zarkashi spoke of "the permissibility of its use for
medical purposes if it is established that it is beneficial".
The British East India Company opium trade to China, sparked the First Opium War.
In the Ottoman Empire, Murad IV attempted to prohibit coffee drinking to Muslims as haraam, arguing that it was an intoxicant, but this ruling was overturned soon after his death in 1640. The introduction of coffee in Europe from Muslim Turkey prompted calls for it to be banned as the devil's work, although Pope Clement VIII
sanctioned its use in 1600, declaring that it was "so delicious that it
would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it". Bach's Coffee Cantata,
from the 1730s, presents vigorous debate between a girl and her father
over her desire to consume coffee. The early association between coffeehouses and seditious political activities in England, led to the banning of such establishments in the mid-17th century.
A number of Asian rulers had similarly enacted early
prohibitions, many of which were later forcefully overturned by Western
colonial powers during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1360, for
example, King Ramathibodi I, of Ayutthaya Kingdom (now Thailand), prohibited opium consumption and trade. The prohibition lasted nearly 500 years until 1851, when King Rama IV allowed Chinese migrants to consume opium. While the Konbaung Dynasty prohibited all intoxicants and stimulants
during the reign of King Bodawpaya (1781–1819). As the British
colonized parts of Burma from 1852 they overturned local prohibitions
and established opium monopolies selling Indian produced opium.
In late Qing Imperial China, opium imported by the British East India Company was consumed by all social classes in Southern China.
Between 1821 and 1837, imports of the drug increased fivefold. The
drain of silver to India and widespread social problems that resulted
from this consumption prompted the Chinese government to attempt to end
the trade. This effort was initially successful, with the destruction of
all British opium stock in June 1839. However, to protect their commerce, the British declared war on China in the First Opium War. China was defeated and the war ended with the Treaty of Nanking, which protected foreign opium traders from Chinese law.
First modern drug regulations
Papaver somniferum. The sale of drugs in the UK was regulated by the Pharmacy Act of 1868.
The first modern law in Europe for the regulating of drugs was the Pharmacy Act 1868 in the United Kingdom.
There had been previous moves to establish the medical and
pharmaceutical professions as separate, self-regulating bodies, but the General Medical Council, established in 1863, unsuccessfully attempted to assert control over drug distribution.
The Act set controls on the distribution of poisons and drugs. Poisons
could only be sold if the purchaser was known to the seller or to an
intermediary known to both, and drugs, including opium and all preparations of opium or of poppies, had to be sold in containers with the seller's name and address.
Despite the reservation of opium to professional control, general sales
did continue to a limited extent, with mixtures with less than 1 per
cent opium being unregulated.
After the legislation passed, the death rate caused by opium
immediately fell from 6.4 per million population in 1868 to 4.5 in 1869.
Deaths among children under five dropped from 20.5 per million
population between 1863 and 1867, to 12.7 per million in 1871, and
further declined to between 6 and 7 per million in the 1880s.
In the United States, the first drug law was passed in San Francisco in 1875, banning the smoking of opium in opium dens.
The reason cited was "many women and young girls, as well as young men
of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese
opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise." This
was followed by other laws throughout the country, and federal laws
which barred Chinese people from trafficking in opium. Though the laws
affected the use and distribution of opium by Chinese immigrants, no
action was taken against the producers of such products as laudanum, a tincture of opium and alcohol, commonly taken as a panacea
by white Americans. The distinction between its use by white Americans
and Chinese immigrants was thus based on the form in which it was
ingested: Chinese immigrants tended to smoke it, while it was often
included in various kinds of generally liquid medicines often (but not
exclusively) used by people of European descent. The laws targeted opium
smoking, but not other methods of ingestion.
Britain also passed the All-India Opium Act of 1878, which
similarly formalized social distinctions, by limiting recreational opium
sales to registered Indian opium-eaters and Chinese opium-smokers and
prohibiting its sale to workers from Burma.
Following passage of a regional law in 1895, Australia's Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 addressed opium addiction among Aborigines,
though it soon became a general vehicle for depriving them of basic
rights by administrative regulation. Opium sale was prohibited to the
general population in 1905, and smoking and possession was prohibited in
1908.
Despite these laws, the late 19th century saw an increase in
opiate consumption. This was due to the prescribing and dispensing of
legal opiates by physicians and pharmacists to relieve painful menstruation.
It is estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived
in the United States at the time, and a majority of these addicts were
women.
Changing attitudes and the drug prohibition campaign
Thomas Brassey was appointed the head of the Royal Opium Commission in 1893 to investigate the opium trade and make recommendations on its legality.
Since Britain's victory over the Qing Empire in the First Opium War,
British traders had sold large amounts of opium to the Chinese to
balance their trade. Attitudes towards the morality of this business
were slow to change, but in 1874 the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade was formed in England by Quakers led by the Rev. Frederick Storrs-Turner. By the 1890s, increasingly strident campaigns were waged by Protestant missionaries
in China for its abolition. The first such society was established at
the 1890 Shanghai Missionary Conference, where British and American
representatives, including John Glasgow Kerr, Arthur E. Moule, Arthur Gostick Shorrock and Griffith John, agreed to establish the Permanent Committee for the Promotion of Anti-Opium Societies.
Due to increasing pressure in the British parliament, the Liberal government under William Ewart Gladstone approved the appointment of a Royal Commission on Opium to India in 1893. The commission was tasked with ascertaining the impact of India's opium exports to the Far East,
and to advise whether the trade should be ended and opium consumption
itself banned in India or not. After an extended inquiry the Royal
Commission rejected the claims made by the anti-opiumists in regard to
the harm wrought to India by this traffic and the issue was buried for
another 15 years.
The missionary organizations were outraged over the Royal Commission on Opium's
conclusions and set up the Anti-Opium League in China; the league
gathered data from every Western-trained medical doctor in China and
published Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on the Use of Opium in China.
This was the first anti-drug campaign to be based on scientific
principles, and it had a tremendous impact on the state of educated
opinion in the West. In England, the home director of the China Inland Mission, Benjamin Broomhall, was an active opponent of the opium trade, writing two books to promote the banning of opium smoking: The Truth about Opium Smoking and The Chinese Opium Smoker.
In 1888, Broomhall formed and became secretary of the Christian Union
for the Severance of the British Empire with the Opium Traffic and
editor of its periodical, National Righteousness. He lobbied the British Parliament to stop the opium trade. He and James Laidlaw Maxwell
appealed to the London Missionary Conference of 1888 and the Edinburgh
Missionary Conference of 1910 to condemn the continuation of the trade.
As Broomhall lay dying, an article from The Times
was read to him with the welcome news that an international agreement
had been signed ensuring the end of the opium trade within two years.
Newspaper article from The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana in 1912 reporting on a drug arrest, a month after the International Opium Convention was signed and ratified at The Hague.
In 1906, a motion to 'declare the opium trade "morally indefensible"
and remove Government support for it', initially unsuccessfully proposed
by Arthur Pease in 1891, was put before the House of Commons. This time the motion passed. The Chinese government banned opium soon afterwards.
These changing attitudes led to the founding of the International Opium Commission in 1909. An International Opium Convention was signed by 13 nations at The Hague on January 23, 1912 during the First International Opium Conference. This was the first international drug control treaty and it was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on January 23, 1922.
The Convention provided that "The contracting Powers shall use their
best endeavours to control, or to cause to be controlled, all persons
manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting morphine,
cocaine, and their respective salts, as well as the buildings in which
these persons carry such an industry or trade."
The treaty became international law in 1919 when it was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles. The role of the Commission was passed to the League of Nations, and all signatory nations agreed to prohibit the import, sale, distribution, export, and use of all narcotic drugs, except for medical and scientific purposes.
Prohibition
In the UK the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, passed at the onset of the First World War,
gave the government wide-ranging powers to requisition property and to
criminalise specific activities. A moral panic was whipped up by the
press in 1916 over the alleged sale of drugs to the troops of the British Indian Army. With the temporary powers of DORA, the Army Council
quickly banned the sale of all psychoactive drugs to troops, unless
required for medical reasons. However, shifts in the public attitude
towards drugs—they were beginning to be associated with prostitution, vice and immorality—led
the government to pass further unprecedented laws, banning and
criminalising the possession and dispensation of all narcotics,
including opium and cocaine. After the war, this legislation was
maintained and strengthened with the passing of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920. Home Office control was extended to include raw opium, morphine, cocaine, ecogonine and heroin.
Hardening of Canadian attitudes toward Chinese opium users and
fear of a spread of the drug into the white population led to the
effective criminalization of opium for nonmedical use in Canada between
1908 and the mid-1920s.
The Mao Zedong government nearly eradicated both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using social control and isolation.
Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were
executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops.
Remaining opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region. The remnant opium trade primarily served Southeast Asia, but spread to American soldiers during the Vietnam War,
with 20 percent of soldiers regarding themselves as addicted during the
peak of the epidemic in 1971. In 2003, China was estimated to have four
million regular drug users and one million registered drug addicts.
In the US, the Harrison Act was passed in 1914, and required sellers of opiates
and cocaine to get a license. While originally intended to regulate the
trade, it soon became a prohibitive law, eventually becoming legal precedent that any prescription for a narcotic given by a physician or pharmacist – even in the course of medical treatment for addiction – constituted conspiracy to violate the Harrison Act. In 1919, the Supreme Court ruled in Doremus that the Harrison Act was constitutional and in Webb that physicians could not prescribe narcotics solely for maintenance. In Jin Fuey Moy v. United States,
the court upheld that it was a violation of the Harrison Act even if a
physician provided prescription of a narcotic for an addict, and thus
subject to criminal prosecution. This is also true of the later Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. Soon, however, licensing bodies did not issue licenses, effectively banning the drugs.
The American judicial system did not initially accept drug
prohibition. Prosecutors argued that possessing drugs was a tax
violation, as no legal licenses to sell drugs were in existence; hence, a
person possessing drugs must have purchased them from an unlicensed
source. After some wrangling, this was accepted as federal jurisdiction
under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Alcohol prohibition
The prohibition of alcohol commenced in Finland in 1919 and in the
United States in 1920. Because alcohol was the most popular recreational
drug in these countries, reactions to its prohibition were far more
negative than to the prohibition of other drugs, which were commonly
associated with ethnic minorities, prostitution, and vice. Public
pressure led to the repeal of alcohol prohibition in Finland in 1932,
and in the United States in 1933. Residents of many provinces of Canada also experienced alcohol prohibition for similar periods in the first half of the 20th century.
In Sweden, a referendum
in 1922 decided against an alcohol prohibition law (with 51% of the
votes against and 49% for prohibition), but starting in 1914 (nationwide
from 1917) and until 1955 Sweden employed an alcohol rationing system
with personal liquor ration books ("motbok").
War on Drugs
American drug law enforcement agents detain a man in 2005.
In response to rising drug use among young people and the counterculture
movement, government efforts to enforce prohibition were strengthened
in many countries from the 1960s onward. Support at an international
level for the prohibition of psychoactive drug
use became a consistent feature of United States policy during both
Republican and Democratic administrations, to such an extent that US
support for foreign governments has often been contingent on their
adherence to US drug policy. Major milestones in this campaign include the introduction of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971 and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
in 1988. A few developing countries where consumption of the
prohibited substances has enjoyed longstanding cultural support, long
resisted such outside pressure to pass legislation adhering to these
conventions. Nepal only did so in 1976.
Opium poppies growing in Afghanistan, a major source of drugs today.
In 1972, United States President Richard Nixon announced the commencement of the so-called "War on Drugs". Later, President Reagan added the position of drug czar to the President's Executive Office. In 1973, New York introduced mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years to life imprisonment for possession of more than 113 grams (4 oz) of a so-called hard drug, called the Rockefeller drug laws after New York Governor and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Similar laws were introduced across the United States.
California's broader 'three strikes and you're out' policy adopted in 1994 was the first mandatory sentencing
policy to gain widespread publicity and was subsequently adopted in
most United States jurisdictions. This policy mandates life imprisonment
for a third criminal conviction of any felony offense. A similar 'three
strikes' policy was introduced to the United Kingdom by the
Conservative government in 1997. This legislation enacted a mandatory
minimum sentence of seven years for those convicted for a third time of a
drug trafficking offense involving a class A drug.
Calls for legalization, relegalization or decriminalization
The
terms relegalization, legalization, and decriminalization are used with
very different meanings by different authors, something that can be
confusing when the claims are not specified. Here are some variants:
- Sales of one or more drugs (e.g., marijuana) for personal use become legal, at least if sold in a certain way.
- Sales of an extracts with a specific substance become legal sold in a certain way, for example on prescription.
- Use or possession of small amounts for personal use do not lead to incarceration if it is the only crime, but it is still illegal; the court or the prosecutor can impose a fine. (In that sense, Sweden both legalized and supported drug prohibition simultaneously.)
- Use or possession of small amounts for personal use do not lead to incarceration. The case is not treated in an ordinary court, but by a commission that may recommend treatment or sanctions including fines. (In that sense, Portugal both legalized and supported drug prohibitions).
In the 2010s, movements have grown around the world proposing the relegalization and decriminalization of drugs. For instance, there is a movement for cannabis legalization in Canada, as well as the Marijuana Party of Canada. Drug liberalization policies are often supported by proponents of liberalism and libertarianism
on the grounds of individual freedom. There are also growing
countermovements. Prohibition of drugs is supported by proponents of conservative values
but also by many other types of NGO's that are not linked to
conservative political parties. A growing number of NGO organizations in
many countries have joined the international network World Federation Against Drugs. WFAD members support the United Nations narcotics conventions.
In 2002, five (former) police officers created Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a NGO
that has gained a lot of media attention, showing that support for a
regulation of drug sales also comes from the "other side" of the drug
war and that maintaining a global corruption pyramid for the tax-free
Mafia monopoly isn't a good idea, compared to controlling access, age
and quality. The former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Drug Czar John P. Walters,
has described the drug problem in the United States as a "public health
challenge", and he has publicly eschewed the notion of a "war on
drugs". He has supported additional resources for substance abuse
treatment and has touted random student drug testing as an effective
prevention strategy. However, the actions of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy continue to belie the rhetoric of a shift away from
primarily enforcement-based responses to illegal drug use.
People marching in the streets of Cape Town against the prohibition of cannabis in South Africa, May 2015
On February 22, 2008 the President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya,
called on the world to legalize drugs, in order, he said, to prevent
the majority of violent murders occurring in Honduras. Honduras is used
by cocaine smugglers as a transiting point between Colombia
and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an
average of 8–10 murders a day, with an estimated 70% being a result of
this international drug trade. The same problem is occurring in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico, according to Zelaya. In January 2012 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made a plea to the United States and Europe to start a global debate about legalizing drugs. This call was echoed by the Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, who announced his desire to legalize drugs, saying "What I have done is put the issue back on the table."
In a report dealing with HIV in June 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) of the UN
called for the decriminalization of drugs particularly including
injected ones. This conclusion put WHO at odds with broader
long-standing UN policy favoring criminalization.
Eight states of the United States (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine,
Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington), as well as the District
of Columbia, have legalized the sale of marijuana for personal
recreational use as of 2017, despite the fact that recreational use
remains illegal under U.S. federal law. The conflict between state and
federal law is, as of 2018, unresolved.
Drug prohib
The following individual drugs, listed under their respective family
groups (e.g., barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates), are the most
frequently sought after by drug users and as such are prohibited or
otherwise heavily regulated for use in many countries:
- Among the barbiturates, pentobarbital (Nembutal), secobarbital (Seconal), and amobarbital (Amytal)
- Among the benzodiazepines, temazepam (Restoril; Normison; Euhypnos), flunitrazepam (Rohypnol; Hypnor; Flunipam), and nimetazepam (Erimin)
- Cannabis products, e.g., marijuana, hashish, and hashish oil
- Among the dissociatives, phencyclidine (PCP), and ketamine are the most sought after.
- hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, peyote, and psilocybin
- Empathogen-entactogen drugs like MDMA ("ecstasy")
- Among the narcotics, it is opiates such as morphine and codeine, and opioids such as diacetylmorphine (Heroin), hydrocodone (Vicodin; Hycodan), oxycodone (Percocet; Oxycontin), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and oxymorphone (Opana).
- Sedatives such as GHB and methaqualone (Quaalude)
- Stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine (Adderall), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), methamphetamine (Desoxyn), methcathinone, and methylphenidate (Ritalin).
The regulation of the above drugs varies in many countries. Alcohol
possession and consumption by adults is today widely banned only in Islamic countries and certain states
of India. The United States, Finland, and Canada banned alcohol in the
early part of the 20th century; this was called Prohibition. Although
alcohol prohibition was repealed in these countries at a national level,
there are still parts of the United States that do not allow alcohol sales, even though alcohol possession may be legal. Bhutan is the only country in the world where possession and use of tobacco is illegal. New Zealand has banned the importation of chewing tobacco as part of the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990. In some parts of the world, provisions are made for the use of traditional sacraments like ayahuasca, iboga, and peyote. In Gabon, Africa, iboga (tabernanthe iboga) has been declared a national treasure and is used in rites of the Bwiti religion. The active ingredient, ibogaine, is proposed as a treatment of opioid withdrawal and various substance use disorders.
In countries where alcohol and tobacco are legal, certain
measures are frequently undertaken to discourage use of these drugs.
For example, packages of alcohol and tobacco sometimes communicate
warnings directed towards the consumer, communicating the potential
risks of partaking in the use of the substance. These drugs also
frequently have special sin taxes
associated with the purchase thereof, in order to recoup the losses
associated with public funding for the health problems the use causes in
long-term users. Restrictions on advertising also exist in many
countries, and often a state holds a monopoly on manufacture, distribution, marketing, and/or the sale of these drugs.
Legal dilemmas
In the United States, there is considerable legal debate about the impact these laws have had on Americans' civil rights.
Critics claim that the War on Drugs has lowered the evidentiary burden
required for a legal search of a suspect's dwelling or vehicle, or to
intercept a suspect's communications. However, many of the searches that result in drug arrests are often "commissions" to search a person or the person's property.
People who consent to a search, knowing full well that they
possess contraband, generally consent because they are ignorant of the
fact that they have the right to decline permission to search.
Under the laws of most U.S. states, police are not required to disclose
to suspects that they have the right to decline a search. Even when a
suspect does not give permission to search, police are often known[citation needed]
to state in arrest affidavits and even provide sworn testimony that the
suspect consented to the search, secure in the knowledge that a judge
will normally weigh all questions of credibility in favour of law
enforcement and against the accused.
Similarly, in cases where the accused does not consent to a search, courts have generally held police to a very low standard of reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause in drug cases, essentially endorsing "fishing expeditions" by stop-and-search highway interdiction police.
The sentencing statutes in the United States Code that cover controlled substances are notoriously intricate. For example, a first-time offender convicted in a single proceeding for
selling marijuana three times, and found to have carried a gun on him
all three times (even if it were not used) is subject to a minimum
sentence of 55 years in federal prison.
Drug sentencing guidelines under state law in America are
generally much less harsh than the federal sentencing guidelines,
although great irregularities exist. The vast majority of drug felonies
and almost all drug misdemeanors in the United States are prosecuted at
the state level. The federal government tends to prosecute only drug
trafficking cases involving large amounts of drugs, or cases which have
been referred to federal prosecutors by local district attorneys seeking
the harsher sentences provided under the federal sentencing guidelines.
In rare instances, some defendants are prosecuted both federally and by
the state for the same drug trafficking conduct. The United States
Supreme Court has ruled that a defendant does not face double jeopardy
if he is convicted and sentenced by both the state and federal
government for the same underlying criminal conduct. Sometimes, crimes not directly related to drug use and sale. For example, the United States recently brought charges against club owners for maintaining a place of business where a) ecstasy is known to be frequently consumed; b) paraphernalia associated with the use of ecstasy is sold and/or widely tolerated (such as glow sticks and pacifiers);
and c) "chill-out rooms" are created, where ecstasy users can cool down
(ecstasy users in club settings tend to dance for extended periods of
time, raising the user's blood temperature). These are being challenged in court by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Drug Policy Alliance.
Drug prohibition has created several legal dilemmas. For example, many countries allow the use of undercover law enforcement
officers solely or primarily for the enforcement of laws against use of
certain drugs. Many of these officers are allegedly allowed to commit
crimes if it is necessary to maintain the secrecy of the investigation,
or in order to collect adequate evidence for a conviction.[citation needed]
Some people have criticized this practice as failing to ensure equality
under the law because it grants police officers the right to commit
crimes that no other citizen could commit without potential
consequences.
Another legal dilemma is the creation in several countries of a legal loopholes allowing for arbitrary arrest and prosecution. This is the result of several drugs such as Dimethyltryptamine, GHB, and morphine being illegal to possess but also inherently present in all humans as a result of endogenous
synthesis. Since some jurisdictions classify possession of drugs to
include having the drug present in the blood in any concentration, all
residents of such countries are technically in possession of multiple
illegal drugs at all times.
The War on Drugs has stimulated the creation of international law enforcement agencies (such as Interpol), mostly in Western countries. This has occurred because a large volume of illicit drugs come from Third-World countries.
Social control
In Hallucinations: Behavior, Experience, and Theory (1975), senior US government researchers Louis Jolyon West and Ronald K. Siegel explain how drug prohibition can be used for selective social control:
The role of drugs in the exercise of political control is also coming under increasing discussion. Control can be through prohibition or supply. The total or even partial prohibition of drugs gives the government considerable leverage for other types of control. An example would be the selective application of drug laws ... against selected components of the population such as members of certain minority groups or political organizations
Academic Noam Chomsky argues that drug laws are currently, and have historically, been used by the state to oppress sections of society it opposes:
Very commonly substances are criminalized because they're associated with what's called the dangerous classes, poor people, or working people. So for example in England in the 19th century, there was a period when gin was criminalized and whiskey wasn't, because gin is what poor people drink.
Legal highs and prohibition
In 2013 the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reported that there are 280 new legal drugs, known as legal highs, available in Europe. One of the best known, mephedrone, was banned in the United Kingdom in 2010. On November 24, 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced it would use emergency powers to ban many synthetic cannabinoids within a month. An estimated 73 new psychoactive synthetic drugs appeared on the UK market in 2012. The response of the Home Office
has been to create a temporary class drug order which bans the
manufacture, import and supply but not the possession of named
substances.
Corruption
In
certain countries, there’s a concern that campaigns against drugs and
organized crime are a cover for crooked officials tied to drug
trafficking themselves to take out their competitors. In the United
States, Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger’s opponents accused him of takes bribes from the Mafia to enact prohibition and create a black market.
More recently in the Philippines, one death squad hitman claimed to
author Niko Vorobyov that he was being paid by military officers to
eliminate those drug dealers who failed to pay a ‘tax’. Under President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has waged a bloody war against drugs that may have resulted in up to 29,000 extrajudicial killings.
Penalties
United States
Total incarceration in the United States by year
US cannabis arrests by year
Drug possession is the crime of having one or more illegal drugs in
one's possession, either for personal use, distribution, sale or
otherwise. Illegal drugs fall into different categories and sentences
vary depending on the amount, type of drug, circumstances, and
jurisdiction. In the U.S., the penalty for illegal drug possession and
sale can vary from a small fine to a prison sentence. In some states,
marijuana possession is considered to be a petty offense, with the
penalty being comparable to that of a speeding violation. In some
municipalities, possessing a small quantity of marijuana in one's own
home is not punishable at all. Generally, however, drug possession is an
arrestable offense, although first-time offenders rarely serve jail
time. Federal law makes even possession of "soft drugs", such as
cannabis, illegal, though some local governments have laws contradicting
federal laws.
In the U.S., the War on Drugs is thought to be contributing to a prison overcrowding problem. In 1996, 59.6%
of prisoners were drug-related criminals. The U.S. population grew by
about +25% from 1980 to 2000. In that same 20 year time period, the U.S.
prison population tripled, making the U.S. the world leader in both
percentage and absolute number of citizens incarcerated. The United
States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the prisoners.
About 90% of United States prisoners are incarcerated in state
jails. In 2016, about 200,000, under 16%, of the 1.3 million people in
these state jails, were serving time for drug offenses. 700,000 were
incarcerated for violent offenses.
Australia
A Nielsen poll in 2012 found that only 27% of voters favoured decriminalisation. Australia has steep penalties for growing and using drugs even for personal use. with Western Australia having the toughest laws.
There is an associated anti-drug culture amongst a significant number
of Australians. Law enforcement targets drugs, particularly in the party
scene. In 2012, crime statistics in Victoria revealed that police were increasingly arresting users rather than dealers, and the Liberal government banned the sale of bongs that year.
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, cannabis and other "soft" drugs are partly
decriminalised in small quantities. The Dutch government treats the
problem as more of a public health issue than a criminal issue. Contrary
to popular belief, cannabis is still illegal, mostly to satisfy the
country's agreements with the United Nations. Coffee shops
that sell cannabis to people 18 or above are tolerated in some cities,
and pay taxes like any other business for their cannabis and hashish
sales, although distribution is a grey area that the authorities would
rather not go into as it is not decriminalised. Many "coffee shops" are
found in Amsterdam
and cater mainly to the large tourist trade; the local consumption rate
is far lower than in the US. Netherlands has the highest antidrug
related public expenditure per capita of all countries in EU (139 EUR per capita, 2004).
Coffeeshop in Amsterdam
Similarly to the rest of the European Union
member states and American democracies, controlled drugs are illegal in
the Netherlands. Nevertheless, illegal drugs are consumed worldwide,
causing concern in the international community. According to the United Nations Drug Control Programme, results in the 2001 World Drug Report
estimate "that the extent of drug abuse in the world involves about 180
million people, which represents 3% of the global population. The
majority of drug users (80%) used cannabis, followed by amphetamine-type
stimulants such as methamphetamine, amphetamine and substances of the
ecstasy group (16%), cocaine (8%), heroin (5%) and other opiates (2%)".
The administrative bodies responsible for enforcing the drug
policies include the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Ministry
of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, and the
Ministry of Finance. Local authorities also shape local policy, within
the national framework. The prohibition policy is heavily influenced by
the international community (through the United Nations), especially the
neighboring states of France and Germany, which pressure the kingdom to
be more strict, for they are directly affected through the illegal
trafficking of narcotics coming from the Netherlands.
Legally, possession, manufacturing, trafficking, importation and
exportation are forbidden. Nonetheless, it is not an offense to use
drugs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2003). There are different penalties
involved when breaking the law, which may include a monetary fine,
imprisonment, or both. To apply the law, the government differentiates
between "soft" and "hard" drugs. Soft drugs are considered to produce
less harm to both the individual and society, these being used mainly
for folk medicine and recreational purposes. This category encompasses cannabis (nederwiet),
hashish and some fungi. Hard drugs are considered to cause considerable
personal harm through addiction and physical detriment, as well as
nuisance to society, by increasing crime and deteriorating families.
Cocaine, heroin, etc. belong to this category.
Along with these two categories, there is a pyramid of priority when it comes to prosecution by law enforcement agencies.
- The handling and trade of hard drugs is on the zenith, being a joint target not only by the Netherlands, but also by the international community. This can be punished by maximum sentences of twelve years of imprisonment and/or a fine of up to €45,000.
- The second priority is given to the production and trade of soft drugs. Deviation from the AHOJ-G criteria for coffee shops may result in up to four years of imprisonment and/or a fine of €45,000.
- The third priority focuses on hard drug users. Instead of labelling the users of hard drugs as "criminals", the state aims to rehabilitate users and prevent others from becoming addicted. However, disturbance to society caused by the consumption of hard drugs can result in one year of prison and/or a €11,250 fine. Lastly, individuals possessing more than five grams for personal consumption, or disturbing the public, can go to prison for one month and/or be fined €2,250.
There are varying rules within these categories, for example the
amount possessed, the role played in the transaction and the intent of
the goods.
Regarding coffee shops, the line between law and practice thins. A
coffee shop is a heavily controlled business establishment where
individuals can purchase a personal dose of soft drugs in the form of
joints, pastry, drinks and packages. In theory, these shops must abide
by governmental and local regulations, as well as meet the AHOJ-G
criteria, an acronym for: No Advertising, Hard drugs, Nuisance of any
kind, Jongeren (minors under 18), and a limit of five grams per
transaction. Additionally, the maximum stock at any time is five hundred
grams. Local governments may impose additional rules, such as closing
times, zoning (coffee shops may not be close to schools), and parking
restrictions. The rationale behind coffee shops is to keep citizens away
from the hard drugs scene, bringing them to a safe, social, and
regulated environment.
When analysing the Dutch model, both disadvantages and advantages
can be drawn when comparing the results with other countries. On a
moral argument, tolerating soft drugs can be seen as the defeat of the
government against hedonism.
Additionally, decades of growing and perfecting cannabis and hashish
has resulted in increased levels of the main active hallucinogenic
constituent tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), as levels have doubled, making the derived products more
powerful, and therefore requiring less to achieve the desired effect.
The coffee shop will lose its license if it caught selling to minors.
Though there was a slight increase of use at the beginning, the rates
balanced out some years later. The presence of coffee shops does not
translate in public urge for experimentation. In fact, most people that
did not consume drugs before the enhancement of the policy continue not
to use them.
When compared to other countries, Dutch drug consumption falls in
the European average at six per cent regular use (twenty-one per cent
at some point in life) and considerably lower than the Anglo-Saxon
countries headed by the United States with an eight per cent recurring
use (thirty-four at some point in life). Experts have come to the
conclusion that the policies applied do not play a striking role in
these statistics, though there is debate over this issue (CEDRO, 2004).
While there has been talk for over a decade about preventing foreigners
from entering Dutch cannabis coffeeshops by requiring customers to
possess a 'weedpass', this legislation has not been enacted, so Dutch
coffeeshops continue to sell cannabis openly to both locals and
foreigners. However a small number of southern municipalities (including
Roosendaal and Maastricht) in the Netherlands now require customers to
carry identification proving that they are resident in the Netherlands.
Asia
Indonesia
Indonesia carries a maximum penalty of death for drug dealing, and a maximum of 15 years prison for drug use. In 2004, Australian citizen Schappelle Corby was convicted of smuggling 4.4 kilograms of cannabis into Bali,
a crime that carried a maximum penalty of death. Her trial reached the
verdict of guilty with a punishment of 20 years imprisonment. Corby
claimed to be an unwitting drug mule. Australian citizens known as the "Bali Nine" were caught smuggling heroin.
Two of the nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed April
29, 2015 along with six other foreign nationals. In August 2005,
Australian model Michelle Leslie was arrested with two ecstasy
pills. She pleaded guilty to possession and in November 2005 was
sentenced to 3 months imprisonment, which she was deemed to have already
served, and was released from prison immediately upon her admission of
guilt on the charge of possession.
At the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Indonesia, along
with India, Turkey, Pakistan and some South American countries opposed
the criminalisation of drugs.
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Taiwan carries a maximum penalty of death for drug trafficking, while smoking tobacco and wine are classified as legal entertainment drug. The Department of Health is in charge of drug prohibition.
Methods of law enforcement
Because the possession of drugs is called a "victimless crime" by some analysts, as it can be committed in privacy,
the enforcement of prohibitionist laws requires methods of law
enforcement to inspect private property. In societies with strong property laws or individual rights, this may present a risk for conflicts or violations of rights.
Disrupting the market relies on eradication, interdiction and domestic
law enforcement efforts. Through cooperation with governments such as
those of Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan,
coca (the plant source for cocaine) and poppy (the plant source for
opium and heroin) are eradicated by the United States and other allies
such as the United Kingdom, so that the crops cannot be processed into
narcotics. Eradication can be accomplished by aerial spraying or manual
eradication. However, the eradication is only temporary as the harvest
fields can usually be replanted after a certain amount of time.
Dareton police search the vehicle of a suspected drug smuggler in Wentworth, New South Wales, Australia
The government of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
has resisted criticism of aerial spraying of coca and poppy and has
seen major reductions in both crops according to the United Nations
Office of Crime and Drugs.
In 2003, over 1,300 square kilometers of mature coca were sprayed and
eradicated in Colombia, where at the start of the year, approximately
1,450 square kilometers had been planted. This strategic accomplishment
prevented the production over 500 tonnes of cocaine, sufficient to
supply all the cocaine users in both US and Europe for one year.
Further, it eliminated upward of $100 million of illicit income in
Colombia. No effect on prices or availability in the marketplace has
been noted, and the actual number of acres of coca planted seems to have
actually increased, largely shifting to more remote areas or into
neighboring countries. Aerial spraying also has the unintended
consequence of destroying legitimate crop fields in the process.
Interdiction is carried out primarily by aerial and naval armed
forces patrolling known trafficking zones. From South America to the
United States most drugs traverse either the Caribbean Sea or the
Eastern Pacific, usually in "go-fast"
boats that carry drug cargos and engines and little else. Drugs have
also been smuggled in makeshift submarines. In 2015, a submarine with
12,000 pounds of cocaine was seized by the US Coast Guard off of the
coast of Central America. This was the largest US drug seizure to date.
Protest against the Philippine Drug War. The protesters are holding placards which urge Rodrigo Duterte to stop killing drug users.
Investigation on drug trafficking often begins with the recording of unusually frequent deaths by overdose,
monitoring financial flows of suspected traffickers, or by finding
concrete elements while inspecting for other purposes. For example, a
person pulled over for traffic violations may have illicit drugs in his
or her vehicle, thus leading to an arrest and/or investigation of the
source of the materials. The United States federal government has placed
a premium on disrupting the large drug trafficking organizations that
move narcotics into and around the United States, while state and local
law enforcement focus on disrupting street-level drug dealing gangs.
Drug control strategy
Present drug control efforts utilize several techniques in the attempt to achieve their goal of eliminating illegal drug use:
- Disrupting the market for drugs
- Prevention efforts that rely on community activism, public information campaigns to educate the public on the potential dangers of drug use
- Law-enforcement efforts against elements of the supply chain, through surveillance and undercover work
- Providing effective and targeted substance abuse treatment to dependent users
Alternatives to prohibition
On February 11, 2009, a document called Drugs and democracy in Latin America: Towards a paradigm shift was signed by several Latin American political figures, intellectuals, writers and journalists as commissioners of the Latin American Initiative on Drugs and Democracy. The document questions the war on drugs and points out its failures.
It also indicates that prohibition has come with an extensive social
cost, especially to the countries that take part in the production of
illicit drugs. Although controversial, the document does not endorse
either the production or consumption of drugs but recommends for both a
new and an alternative approach. The document argues that drug
production and consumption has become a social taboo
that inhibits the public debate because of its relationship to crime
and as consequence it confines consumers to a small circle where they
become more vulnerable to the actions of organized crime. The authors
also demand for a close review to the prohibitive strategies of the United States
and the study of the advantages and limits of the damage reduction
strategy followed by the European Union. The proposal uses three
paradigms as an alternative:
- The treatment of consumption as a problem of public health.
- The reduction of consumption through the dissemination of information and prevention.
- A new focus towards organized crime.
The document favors the European policies towards drug consumption
since according to the authors it is more humane and efficient. The
signers of this document are: Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ernesto Zedillo, César Gaviria, Paulo Coelho, Enrique Santos, Mario Vargas Llosa, Moisés Naím, Tomas Eloy Martinez
Two years later in mid-2011, the core of the Initiative and its commission were extended and endorsed in a report issued by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Joining the three former presidents of Colombia, Brazil and Mexico and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Llosa on the Global Commission were former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker; Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer and public intellectual; John C. Whitehead, formerly of Goldman Sachs; and Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
