基本説明
This volume systematically assesses the costs of drugs for developing countries.
Full Description
The drug policies of wealthy consuming countries emphasize criminalization, interdiction and eradication. Such extreme responses to social challenges risk unintended, costly consequences. The evidence presented in "Innocent Bystanders" is that these consequences are high in the case of current drug policies, particularly for poor transit and producer countries. These costs include the deaths of thousands in the conflict between drug cartels and security forces, political instability, and the infiltration of criminal elements into governments, on the one hand; and increased narcotics use in countries that would not otherwise have been targeted by drug suppliers. Despite such costs, extreme policies could be worthwhile if their benefits were significantly higher than those of more moderate, less costly policies. The authors review the evidence on the benefits of current policies and find that they are clouded in uncertainty: eradication appears to have no permanent effect on supply; the evidence on criminalization does not exclude either the possibility that its effects on drug consumption are low, or that they are high.
Uncertainty over benefits and the high costs of current policies relative to alternatives justifies greater emphasis on lower cost policies and more conscientious and better-funded efforts to assess the benefits of all policies.
Contents
Introduction Drug Prohibition and Developing Countries: Uncertain Benefits, Certain Costs The Historical Foundations of the Narcotic Drug Control Regime Can Production and Trafficking of Illicit Drugs Be Reduced or Merely Shifted Evaluating Plan Columbia General Equilibrium Analysis of the Market for Illegal Drugs Competitive Advantages in the Production and Trafficking of Coca-Cocaine and Opium-Heroine in Afghanistan and the Andean Countries Cocaine Production and Trafficking: What Do We Know? Responding to Afghanistan's Opium Economy Challenge: Lessons and Policy Implications form a Development Perspectiva
