scholarly journals Markets, Regulation and Drug Law Reform: Towards a Constitutive Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Seddon
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Policy Failure ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Drug Prohibition

After a century of international drug prohibition, and amidst growing consensus that it has been a costly policy failure, arguments for drug law reform are gathering momentum globally. Despite a large body of empirically oriented policy research, the area remains underdeveloped conceptually and theoretically. This article seeks to address this gap by assembling some intellectual resources for a critical socio-legal analysis of drug law reform, drawing on insights from regulation studies, economics, political economy and economic sociology. Reframing the problem as one of market regulation, and using Shearing’s constitutive approach, opens up some new ways of thinking about how drug laws function and the possibilities for reform. It also highlights the importance of taking normative thinking about drug policy futures seriously. In conclusion, it is suggested that a new concept of exchangespace may be key to further theoretical development in this field.

Enacting Safety and Omitting Gender: Australian Human Rights Scrutiny Processes Concerning Alcohol and Other Drug Laws

2021 ◽  
pp. 009145092110651
Author(s):  
Kate Seear ◽  
Sean Mulcahy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Alcohol And Other Drugs ◽  
Men And Masculinities ◽  
Role Of Men ◽  
Research And Policy

Global momentum for drug law reform is building. But how might such reform be achieved? Many argue that human rights offer a possible normative framework for guiding such reform. There has been very little research on whether human rights processes can actually achieve such aims, however. This paper responds to this knowledge gap. It explores how one human rights mechanism—the “parliamentary rights scrutiny process”—deals with alcohol and other drugs. We consider how four Australian parliaments scrutinized proposed new laws that would deal with alcohol and other drugs for their human rights “compatibility.” We find that laws that would limit the rights of people who use alcohol and other drugs were routinely seen as justifiable on the basis that alcohol and other drugs were inherently “unsafe.” Crucially, safety was conceptualized in a gender-neutral way, without regard to the potential role of gender, including specific masculinities, in the production of phenomena such as family violence and sexual violence and other public safety problems. Instead, such problems were regularly constituted as consequences, simply, of alcohol or other drug consumption. In making this argument, we build on the pioneering work of David Moore and colleagues (e.g., 2020). Their work asks important questions about how the causes of violence are constituted across different settings, including research and policy. Drawing on ideas from scholars such as Carol Bacchi and John Law, they identify “gendering practices” and “collateral realities” in research and policy on violence, in which the role of men and masculinities are routinely obscured, displaced or rendered invisible. We find similar problems underway within human rights law. In highlighting these gendering practices and collateral realities, we aim to draw attention to the limitations of some human rights processes and the need for more work in this area.

Finance and Investment: The European Case

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Contributory Factor ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Equity Financing ◽  
Body Of Knowledge

This book is the product of a two-year research programme entitled Restarting European Long-Term Investment Finance (RELTIF), organized by Assonime and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London. The programme brought together leading researchers from across the world to consider the causes of the persistently low level of investment in Europe, to examine the extent to which the financial system was a contributory factor and to identify possible policy remedies for it. It considered the relation of finance to corporate sector investment, the lending behaviour of banks, the provision of equity financing, the role of public sector institutions, regulation, and taxation. The chapters in this volume provide one of the most comprehensive and thorough analyses of any financial system that has been undertaken to date. They reflect a large body of research using new and existing data sets, employing advanced empirical tools, and exploiting the unique insights provided by the tumultuous events of the financial and sovereign debt crises. Together they comprise an exceptional body of knowledge to advance academic thinking and guide policy formulation in the future.

Where Is the Fairness in Canadian Cannabis Legalization? Lessons to be Learned from the American Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-418
Author(s):  
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Drug Law Enforcement ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Drug Prohibition

Canada has received praise and international attention for its departure from strict cannabis prohibition and the introduction of a legal regulatory framework for adult use. In addition to the perceived public health and public safety benefits associated with legalization, reducing the burden placed on the individuals criminalized for cannabis use served as an impetus for change. In comparison to many jurisdictions in the United States, however, Canadian legalization efforts have done less to address the harms that drug law enforcement has inflicted on individuals and communities. This article documents the racialized nature of drug prohibition in Canada and the US and compares the stated aims of legalization in in both jurisdictions. The article outlines the various reparative measures being proposed and implemented in America and contrasts those with the situation in Canada, arguing, furthermore that the absence of social justice measures in Canadian legalization is an extension of the systemic racism perpetuated under prohibition.

Drug law reform back before Congress

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (15) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
CHRIS MURRAY
Keyword(s):  
Law Reform ◽  
Drug Law

scholarly journals Impact evaluations of drug decriminalisation and legal regulation on drug use, health and social harms: a systematic review

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. e035148
Author(s):  
Ayden I Scheim ◽  
Nazlee Maghsoudi ◽  
Zack Marshall ◽  
Siobhan Churchill ◽  
Carolyn Ziegler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Drug Availability ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Usa

ObjectivesTo review the metrics and findings of studies evaluating effects of drug decriminalisation or legal regulation on drug availability, use or related health and social harms globally.DesignSystematic review with narrative synthesis.Data sourcesWe searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science and six additional databases for publications from 1 January 1970 through 4 October 2018.Inclusion criteriaPeer-reviewed articles or published abstracts in any language with quantitative data on drug availability, use or related health and social harms collected before and after implementation of de jure drug decriminalisation or legal regulation.Data extraction and synthesisTwo independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts and articles for inclusion. Extraction and quality appraisal (modified Downs and Black checklist) were performed by one reviewer and checked by a second, with discrepancies resolved by a third. We coded study-level outcome measures into metric groupings and categorised the estimated direction of association between the legal change and outcomes of interest.ResultsWe screened 4860 titles and 221 full-texts and included 114 articles. Most (n=104, 91.2%) were from the USA, evaluated cannabis reform (n=109, 95.6%) and focussed on legal regulation (n=96, 84.2%). 224 study outcome measures were categorised into 32 metrics, most commonly prevalence (39.5% of studies), frequency (14.0%) or perceived harmfulness (10.5%) of use of the decriminalised or regulated drug; or use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs (12.3%). Across all substance use metrics, legal reform was most often not associated with changes in use.ConclusionsStudies evaluating drug decriminalisation and legal regulation are concentrated in the USA and on cannabis legalisation. Despite the range of outcomes potentially impacted by drug law reform, extant research is narrowly focussed, with a particular emphasis on the prevalence of use. Metrics in drug law reform evaluations require improved alignment with relevant health and social outcomes.

Junkies and Jim Crow: The Boggs Act of 1951 and the Racial Transformation of New Orleans’ Heroin Market

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-246
Author(s):  
Amund R. Tallaksen
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Police Department ◽  
State Level ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Black Neighborhoods ◽  
Italian American ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Similar Drug

This article details the origin and passage of the Boggs Act of 1951, as well as a similar drug law passed at the state level in Louisiana. Both laws featured strict mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, which led to a demographic transformation of New Orleans’ heroin markets in the early 1950s: As New Orleans’ Italian-American Mafiosi retreated from the lower echelons of the heroin economy, entrepreneurial African Americans took their place. In turn, many black leaders came to support both stricter drug laws and increased police focus on crime in black neighborhoods. This demand was rooted in African Americans’ frustration with the New Orleans Police Department and its Jim Crow practice of ignoring intra-racial black crime. It also became important for black leaders to distance themselves from the “criminal element”—an otherwise potent political symbol for white segregationists.

Drug Law Reform in Mexico

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Catalina Pérez Correa
Keyword(s):  
Law Reform ◽  
Drug Law
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