Historique
Rapport
Legislative innovation in drug policy. Latin American initiative on drugs and democracy
Auteur(s) :
JELSMA, M.
Année
2009
Page(s) :
20 p.
Langue(s) :
Anglais
Éditeur(s) :
Amsterdam : Transnational Institute (TNI)
Collection :
Drugs Law Reform Papers
Refs biblio. :
25
Domaine :
Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs
Discipline :
LOI (Loi et son application / Law enforcement)
Thésaurus géographique
EUROPE
;
PORTUGAL
;
FINLANDE
;
ESPAGNE
;
PAYS-BAS
;
ROYAUME-UNI
;
AMERIQUE DU SUD
;
URUGUAY
;
PARAGUAY
;
COLOMBIE
;
AMERIQUE DU NORD
;
MEXIQUE
;
ETATS-UNIS
;
CANADA
;
AUSTRALIE
Thésaurus mots-clés
POLITIQUE
;
LEGISLATION
;
POSSESSION DE DROGUE
;
DEPENALISATION
;
PEINE ALTERNATIVE
;
COMPARAISON
;
CANNABIS
;
COCAINE
;
HEROINE
;
MDMA-ECSTASY
;
TRANSPORT IN CORPORE
;
STRUCTURE DE PROXIMITE
;
CLASSIFICATION
Résumé :
This briefing summarizes good practices in legislative reforms around the world, representing steps away from a repressive zero-tolerance model towards a more evidence-based and humane drug policy. The examples provide lessons learned in practice about less punitive approaches and their impact on levels of drug use and drug related harm to the individual and society. Evidence suggests that legislation lessening criminalization combined with shifting resources from law enforcement and incarceration to prevention, treatment and harm reduction is more effective in reducing drug-related problems. Fears that softening drug laws and their enforcement would lead to sharp increases in drug use, have proven untrue.The examples cited below, in spite of their differences in scope and objectives, can be regarded as improvements on an ineffective overly repressive drug control model and they indicate a direction for more substantial reform and paradigm shifts in the future.
The center of gravity for these reforms has been Europe, as the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) sums up: "The analysis of national drug strategies, legal literature, laws, and judicial practice, suggests that in several EU countries public action is based on a) a more powerful focus on treatment rather than on criminal punishment; b) on a sense of disproportion between custodial sentences (often involving a criminal record) and illicit use of drugs; and c) on the perception that cannabis is less dangerous to health compared to other drugs." Similar reforms have also taken place in Australia, Canada and within several states in the United States and increasingly in Latin America, the region potentially becoming a new center of gravity for advancing this type of reform in the near future.
The center of gravity for these reforms has been Europe, as the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) sums up: "The analysis of national drug strategies, legal literature, laws, and judicial practice, suggests that in several EU countries public action is based on a) a more powerful focus on treatment rather than on criminal punishment; b) on a sense of disproportion between custodial sentences (often involving a criminal record) and illicit use of drugs; and c) on the perception that cannabis is less dangerous to health compared to other drugs." Similar reforms have also taken place in Australia, Canada and within several states in the United States and increasingly in Latin America, the region potentially becoming a new center of gravity for advancing this type of reform in the near future.
Affiliation :
Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Cote :
A03986