Legal approaches :
Related articles: Drug control law, Prohibition (drugs), Arguments for and against drug prohibition, Harm reduction Most governments have designed
legislation to criminalize certain types of drug use. These drugs are often called "illegal drugs" but generally, what is illegal is their
unlicensed production, distribution, and possession. These drugs are also called "controlled substances". Even for simple possession, legal punishment can be quite severe (including the
death penalty in some countries). Laws vary across countries, and even within them, and have fluctuated widely throughout history. Attempts by government-sponsored drug control policies to interdict drug supply and eliminate drug abuse have been largely unsuccessful. Despite the huge efforts by the U.S., drug supply and purity have reached an all-time high, with the vast majority of resources spent on interdiction and law enforcement instead of
public health. In the
United States, the number of nonviolent drug offenders in prison exceeds by 100,000 the total incarcerated population in the
EU, despite the fact that the EU has 100 million more citizens. Despite drug legislation (or perhaps because of it), large, organized criminal
drug cartels operate worldwide. Advocates of decriminalization argue that drug prohibition makes drug dealing a lucrative business, leading to much of the associated criminal activity. Some states in the U.S., as of late, have focused on facilitating safe use as opposed to eradicating it. For example, as of 2022, New Jersey has made the effort to expand needle exchange programs throughout the state, passing a bill through the legislature that gives control over decisions regarding these types of programs to the state's Department of Health. This state level bill is not only significant for New Jersey, as it could be used as a model for other states to possibly follow as well. This bill is partly a reaction to the issues occurring at local level city governments within the state of New Jersey as of late. One example of this is in the Atlantic City Government which came under lawsuit after they halted the enactment of said programs within their city. This suit came a year before the passing of this bill, stemming from a local level decision to shut down related operations in Atlantic City made in July that same year. This lawsuit highlights the feelings of New Jersey residents, who had a great influence on this bill's passing the legislature. These feelings were demonstrated in front of Atlantic City City hall, where residents exclaimed their desire for these programs. All in all, the aforementioned bill was signed effectively into law just days after it passed legislature, by New Jersey Governor
Phil Murphy.
Cost Policymakers try to understand the relative costs of drug-related interventions. An appropriate drug policy relies on the assessment of drug-related public expenditure based on a classification system where costs are properly identified. Labelled drug-related expenditures are defined as the direct planned spending that reflects the voluntary engagement of the state in the field of illicit drugs. Direct public expenditures explicitly labeled as drug-related can be easily traced back by exhaustively reviewing official accountancy documents such as national budgets and year-end reports. Unlabelled expenditure refers to unplanned spending and is estimated through modeling techniques, based on a top-down budgetary procedure. Starting from overall aggregated expenditures, this procedure estimates the proportion causally attributable to substance abuse (Unlabelled Drug-related Expenditure = Overall Expenditure × Attributable Proportion). For example, to estimate the prison drug-related expenditures in a given country, two elements would be necessary: the overall prison expenditures in the country for a given period, and the attributable proportion of inmates due to drug-related issues. The product of the two will give a rough estimate that can be compared across different countries.
United Kingdom The UK
Home Office estimated that the social and economic cost of drug abuse to the UK economy in terms of crime, absenteeism and sickness is in excess of £20 billion a year. However, the UK Home Office does not estimate what portion of those crimes are
unintended consequences of drug prohibition (crimes to sustain expensive drug consumption, risky production and dangerous distribution), nor what is the cost of enforcement. Those aspects are necessary for a full analysis of the economics of prohibition.
United States These figures represent overall economic costs, which can be divided into three major components: health costs, productivity losses, and non-health direct expenditures. • Health-related costs were projected to total $16 billion in 2002. • Productivity losses were estimated at $128.6 billion. In contrast to the other costs of drug abuse (which involve direct expenditures for goods and services), this value reflects a loss of potential resources: work in the labor market and in household production that was never performed, but could reasonably be expected to have been performed absent the impact of drug abuse. :Included are estimated productivity losses due to premature death ($24.6 billion), drug abuse-related illness ($33.4 billion), incarceration ($39.0 billion), crime careers ($27.6 billion) and productivity losses of victims of crime ($1.8 billion). • The non-health direct expenditures primarily concern costs associated with the criminal justice system and crime victim costs, but also include a modest level of expenses for administration of the social welfare system. The total for 2002 was estimated at $36.4 billion. The largest detailed component of these costs is for state and federal corrections at $14.2 billion, which is primarily for the operation of prisons. Another $9.8 billion was spent on state and local police protection, followed by $6.2 billion for federal supply reduction initiatives. According to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Medicaid was billed for a significantly higher number of hospital stays for opioid drug overuse than Medicare or private insurance in 1993. By 2012, the differences were diminished. Over the same time, Medicare had the most rapid growth in the number of hospital stays.
Canada Substance abuse takes a financial toll on Canada's hospitals and the country as a whole. In the year 2011, around $267 million of hospital services were attributed to dealing with substance abuse problems. The majority of these hospital costs in 2011 were related to issues with alcohol. Additionally, in 2014, Canada also allocated almost $45 million towards battling prescription drug abuse, extending into the year 2019. Most of the financial decisions made on substance abuse in Canada can be attributed to the research conducted by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) which conduct both extensive and specific reports. In fact, the CCSA is heavily responsible for identifying Canada's heavy issues with substance abuse. Some examples of reports by the CCSA include a 2013 report on drug use during pregnancy and a 2015 report on adolescents' use of cannabis. ==Special populations==