A Dive into Drug History and Issues: From Illicit Substances to the Legalization Debate

1. Drugs

2. Illicit Drug Issues • History and “Drug Panics” • Current Use / Trends • Relationship Between Drug use and Crime • Drug Control Strategy • The Legalization Debate • Theories of Drug Use

3. What is a “drug?” • A “psychoactive drug” is one that alters mood, emotion, perception, or other mental states • By that definition: alcohol, caffeine and nicotine count • Also included are Prozac, Ritalin, Vicodin • Throw in the “illicit” drugs… • Americans are some fairly serious druggies

4. A Long History of Substance Use • The use of chemical substances to “get high” dates back to ancient times • Mesopotamian writings (4,000 years ago) identify opium as the “plant of joy” • Primitive people during the stone age drank alcohol • South American Indians chewed coca leaves since before the time of the Incas • Until recently, most drugs legal • Winston Churchill (1912) used a “cocaine solution”; common “cure all” drugs were opium-based

5. Morphine teething drops, cocaine solutions and so forth from 1800s

6. Criminalization of Drugs • Late 1800s in U.S. • “Moral Crusaders,” especially religious • Medical field began to suggest morphine and opiates were “habit-forming” and constituted a “disease” • The “temperance movement” • Drug Laws • 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act • 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act • 1937 Marijuana Taxation Act

7. Drug Panics/Scares • Often precede new criminalization or heightened penalties • Worst-case scenario  “typical” • Meth-mouth, crack babies… • Media sensationalism and hyperbole • Epidemic, most addictive drug ever, causes other bad things…

8. Drugs and “Dangerous” Folks • Often times, the criminalization had more to do with other concerns (fear of losing jobs to cheap labor, racism) • Marijuana  Mexicans, Black Jazz Musicians, etc. • Opium—Chinese railroad workers • Crack—inner city blacks

9. Media example of “Drug Panic” propaganda • Harry Anslingerand the Reefer Madness era • What to watch in the film • Who are the “dangerous” folks using? • Exaggeration/hyperbole? • “Facts” about the drug, damage it causes, addictiveness… • Kramer from Seinfeld

10. Drug Use / Trends • Sources: • National Survey on Drug Use and Health • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration • Nationally representative household based (12+ yrs) • Monitoring the Future Survey • High School based (8-12th grade) • Limitations of sources?

13. Illicit Drug use and other Crime • Strong correlation(.5-.7) between regular drug use and crime • Offenders with substance abuse problems commit a high percent of some crimes • 75% of robberies in one study • Two-thirds of those jailed test positive for illicit drugs

14. Relationships Between Drugs and Crime • Drug-defined offenses • Possession and Sales • Drug-related offenses • Drug induced rage  assault • Robbery to feed drug habit • Drug-using lifestyle • Crimes relevant to “lifestyle” • Not cause-effect

15. The “Gateway” issue • Is weed a “gateway” drug for harder drugs? • Is cigarette smoking a gateway to weed? • Gateway implies causality • The use of some drug (nicotine, weed) causes use of harder drugs independent of other factors such as peer group, low self-control, lifestyle… • Is it really the weed that causes people to try crack cocaine or heroin? • Danger of “DARE” sorts of messages

16. Drug Control Strategies • “War on Drugs” = $600 Billion over past 25 years • Source Control • Interdiction • Punishment (Deterrence) • Drug Testing • Different Approaches • Drug Education (non-D.A.R.E.) • Drug Treatment (California’s Prop 36) • Public Health-Harm Reduction Models

17. Drug Legalization? • Pro? • Reduce crime by eliminating “drug-defined crimes” • Reduce Prison Costs • Reduce violence generated by black market • Reduce police corruption (?) • Con? • Increased drug use and social costs • Moral costs • Practical Problems with Legalization • Which drugs? Who sells? Minors?

18. Drug Treatment • As with criminal rehabilitation programs, cognitive behavioral programs have a track record of success • Cognitive = skill and restructuring • The effect of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous is largely unkown • Very resistant to academic research

19. Drug Courts • Started in 1989 in Dade County Florida as a reaction to crowded jails/court dockets • Spread like wildfire thereafter • Key ingredients • Team approach • Judicial involvement in supervision (court reviews) • Strong treatment component • Quick processing

20. Drug Court II • Most research has been favorable • Reductions in drug use and other criminal activity • South St. Louis County (Duluth) MN drug court • Reviewed by one of the best bow hunting criminologists in the country • Significant reductions in felony offending vs. a comparison group of people arrested for drug felonies prior to the existence of drug court

21. Theories of Drug Use? • Most theories of crime can also explain drug use • social learning, social control, strain, developmental…

22. UMD: Percent Reporting Nonmedical Drug Use, by Type of Drug, Past 12 Months

23. Predicting Use ***p < .001; **p < .01; *p < .05; †p < .10; †† Reference category for this variable is “none”

24. Logistic Regression Results ***p < .01; **p < .05; *p < .10