If enforcement is not working, what are the alternatives?

Abstract

0 d roduces goods for a small fraction of the price its customers re willing to pay. It cleverly takes advantage of the globalzation of the economy, and skilfully responds to changing arkets and distribution routes. It is global but dispersed, uilt on a high level of trust, marketing its wares to the young ithout spending anything on conventional advertising. It rings rewards to some poorer countries, and employs many f the worlds disadvantaged and unskilled. Unfortunately, I m not talking about NIKE; I am describing the world drug ndustry. In this issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, ou have heard from individuals with expertise on the social nd health impacts of illicit drug use in Vancouver. I will, owever, give you a perspective that may or may not be supthe accompanying urban decay. Many argue that the criminal justice system does not respond adequately to people who sell drugs or commit crimes to sustain a drug habit. They contend that the failure can be attributed to the inability of the various actors in the criminal justice process to see what they must do to solve the drug problem. Others suggest that substance abuse is primarily a health issue and should be dealt with by increasing services to those who are addicted to drugs, and that the criminal justice system is, at root, irrelevant to crime, that it deals with only the symptoms of underlying social problems, and that the solution to the drug problem must be found in broad-scale social change. Fortunately, most critics agree that these issues require either a national, provincial, regional, or community orted by these people or others who study the drug problem. am aware that analyzing a topic that is the subject of heated ocial debate may have its hazards. Many law enforcement rofessionals are reluctant to openly discuss the issues, and everal police leaders are concerned about the prospect of approach, or a combination of these approaches. This essay will concentrate largely, but not exclusively on a retrospective view – what happened and what difference did it make; on a prospective view – what will happen and what should be done; and, on an integrated approach – combining the opera i