Abstract
* Free Fulltext on Publisher Wesbite BACKGROUND Illegal drug use is a global public health problem with consequences for social and economic development. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently estimated the global prevalence of illegal drug use at between 149 million and 272 million people, or 3.3 to 6.1 percent of the world’s population, and rising (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2011). Illegal drug use results directly in almost 200,000 deaths per year (UNODC, 2011), and the indirect social and economic costs of the illegal drug trade are much greater. The economic cost of illegal drug use is enormous with billions of dollars invested in the attempt to suppress the industry (Paoli, Greenfield & Reuter, 2009). In 2011, the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center estimated that the economic cost to the U.S. of illicit drug use was more than $193 billion during the 2007 calendar year. This estimate includes $61.4 billion in crime related issues, $11.4 billion in health related issues and $120.2 billion in loss of productivity (United States Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Centre, 2011). At a country level, the violence associated with the use of illegal drugs is of primary concern (Finklea, Krouse, & Rosenblum, 2011). In some countries such as the U.S, policymakers rely on crop targeting strategies as a way to resolve military conflict (Felbab-Brown, 2010). Research consistently shows a direct link between emerging violence and the illicit drug trade (International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, 2010). International implications of the drug trade include the establishment of international organized crime networks (Schneider, 2010), an escalation in violence along trafficking routes (UNODC & Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank, 2007), and increased corruption in federal law enforcement agencies (Bronitt, 2004; UNODC, 2007). In 2010 in Mexico alone, the estimated number of deaths related to drug trafficking was 11,600, with an estimated 30,000 deaths occurring from December 2006 onwards...
Highlights
Illegal drug use is a global public health problem with consequences for social and economic development
Research consistently shows a direct link between emerging violence and the illicit drug trade (International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, 2010)
In 2010, for example, over 50 percent of the total federal expenditure on the control of illegal drugs in the U.S was spent on domestic law enforcement and interdiction, and almost two-thirds (64.5%) of the total expenditure was spent on supply-reduction efforts (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2010)
Summary
Illegal drug use is a global public health problem with consequences for social and economic development. Illicit crop targeting (including eradication, alternative development and awareness campaigns) is one of the key law enforcement wholesale supply reduction strategies. We note that an earlier systematic review has examined law enforcement interventions “at the street level” (see Mazerolle, Soole, & Rombouts, 2006, 2007) and concluded that proactive, problem-oriented interventions involving partnerships between the police and third parties and/or community entities are more effective at reducing drug problems in drug problem places than reactive/directed approaches. Our systematic review seeks to provide policy makers with the research evidence to help guide a smarter use of scarce law enforcement resources aimed at the wholesale level of efforts to control the supply of illegal drugs
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