Download Chapter XV – Drugs and Crime

Chapter 15
Drugs and Crime
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Drug Abuse
• accounts for a large proportion of
present day law violations
• contributes to many other types of
criminal activity
• leads to a huge number of arrests,
clogged courtrooms, and
overcrowded prisons
• places tremendous strain on the
criminal justice system
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Drug Abuse
Consequences
• lost productivity
• wasted human
potential
• fragmented families
• violence
• other crimes
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Percentage of Federal Prisoners Sentenced for
Drug Offenses, 1970-2001
Source: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
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What is a Drug?
A drug may be any
ingestive substance
that has a noticeable
effect upon the mind or
body.
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What is a Drug?
Some substances have medical applicability, but
usually are not available without a prescription
(these occupy a middle ground on the continuum
between acceptability and illegality).
• Examples:
•
•
•
•
•
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antibiotics
diet pills
tranquilizers
stimulants
mood-altering chemicals
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What is a Drug?
• Some drugs occupy the “high ground” in
social and legal condemnation,
including psychoactive substances, a
chemical substance that affects
cognition, feeling, and/or awareness.
• These drugs have the ability to produce
substantially altered states of
consciousness and have
high potential for addiction.
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What is a Drug?
Examples:
• heroin - has been advocated as beneficial
in relieving suffering associated with
some forms of terminal illness
• peyote - may be used legally by members
of the Native American Church in
Indian religious services
• LSD - has been employed experimentally
to investigate the nature of
human consciousness
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“High Ground” Drugs
• mescaline - may be used
legally in the religious
services of members
of the Native American
Church
• cocaine - used in certain
medical conditions
and can be applied as
a topical anesthetic
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Alcohol Abuse
• Alcohol abuse is considered one
of the nation’s greatest health
and social problems.
• More Americans
drink today than
anytime since WWII.
• Drinkers today drink
more heavily than in
the past.
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Alcohol Abuse
• 30% of the American population
abstains from drinking alcohol.
• As many as 40,000,000
Americans may be problem
drinkers.
• 93% of high school seniors have
tried alcohol.
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Alcohol Abuse
• Alcohol is involved in 40% of traffic
fatalities, causing 16,653 highway
deaths in 2000.
• Alcohol is consumed by approximately 37%
of offenders immediately before crime
commission.
• The number of arrests for public
drunkenness reached 637,554 in 2000.
• In the case of violent crime, the percentage
of offenders under the influence of
alcohol at the time of the crime is 42%.
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History of Drug Abuse in
America
Opium
• widely available in “patent” medicines
at corner drugstores in the 1800’s
and early 1900’s
• widespread use among
Chinese immigrants who
worked on rail-roads on
the West Coast
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History of Drug Abuse in
America
• The Civil War drastically raised
awareness of painkilling
properties of morphine
(derivative of opium) – in late
1800’s morphine was prescribed
by doctors and dentists.
• Opium dens spread to other ethnic
groups throughout the West.
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Percentage Offenders Using Drugs Immediately Prior to
Crime Commission, by Type of Drug
Source: Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, Bureau of Justice
Statistics (Washington, D.C.: BJS, January, 2000).
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Derivatives of Opium
Heroin:
• most potent
derivative of
opium
• invented as a
substitute for
morphine by
German chemists
in 1898
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Marijuana
In the 1960’s, public attitude became
more positive towards marijuana which
then spread in an epidemic like manner
across the United States.
• considerably less potent than
heroin
• a relatively short history in the
United States
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Marijuana
• botanical name “cannabis sativa”
• usually smoked, but
can be eaten or
made into a tea
• low doses – creates
restlessness and
increasing sense
of well-being
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• may heighten
sensory
perception
• impairs memory and
rational thought
• effects begin within
a few minutes
following use and
may last for
up to 2-3 hours
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Marijuana
• There is no clearly established medical
use, but marijuana is used as
supplemental medication in cases of
on-going chemotherapy and in
treatment of AIDS patients.
• Most users are young, with
many less than 20 years of age.
• Most marijuana is brought to the
U.S. from Mexico and Columbia.
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Cocaine
• Upon its discovery,
cocaine was touted for
its powerful analgesic
or therapeutic effects.
• In the late 1800’s, the cocaine
bandwagon reached the U.S., and
various medicines were offered to
the American public such as CocaCola®.
• Soon, cocaine became the drug of
choice among the young and
upwardly mobile.
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Cocaine
• most potent central nervous
system stimulant of natural
origin
• extracted from
the leaves of
a coca plant
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Crack Cocaine
• derivative of powdered
cocaine
• became popular in the 1980’s
• sold today in the form of
“rocks,” “cookies,” or
“biscuits,” which are then
smoked
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Drug Use and Social
Awareness
Six elements of drug use are:
• The conceptualization of addiction
as a physical and/or medical
condition is one element.
• The understanding that drug use is
associated with other kinds of
criminal activity.
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Drug Use and Social
Awareness
• Generally widespread social
condemnation of drug use as a
waste of economic resources and
human lives.
• Comprehensive and detailed
federal and state laws regulating
the use or availability of drugs.
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Drug Use and Social
Awareness
• A large involvement with illicit
drugs among the urban poor and
the socially disenfranchised.
• A shift from the definition of drug
abuse as primarily a medical
problem to the view that such
abuse is a law enforcement issue.
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Anti-Drug Legislation
• 1875 - San Francisco enacted statute
prohibiting smoking of opium.
• 1914 - Harrison Narcotics Act required
persons dealing in opium, morphine,
heroin, cocaine, and specified
derivatives of these drugs to register
with federal government and pay a
yearly tax of $1.00.
• This act represents the first major piece of
federal anti-drug legislation.
• It allowed physicians, pharmacists, and
members of the medical profession to
register.
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Anti-Drug Legislation
• 1937 - Marijuana Tax Act placed a tax
of $100 per ounce on cannabis.
• 1951 - Boggs Act:
• Marijuana and several other drugs
became federally prohibited
controlled substances.
• The Boggs Act required removal, from
pharmacies within 120 days, of any
medicines containing heroin.
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Anti-Drug Legislation
• 1956 - Narcotics Control Act:
• increased penalties for drug
trafficking and possession
• made sale of heroin to those
under 18 a capital offense
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Anti-Drug Legislation
• 1963 - Presidential Commission
Recommendation:
• eliminated the of Federal Bureau
of Narcotics
• reduced prison term for drug
offenders
• increased research and social
programs to deal with the
drug problem
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Anti-Drug Legislation
•Comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act of 1970:
• This act still forms the basis of federal
government enforcement efforts.
• Title II set up 5 schedules, which
classify psychoactive drugs
according to degree of
psychoactivity and abuse potential.
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Adult Arrests for Drug-Law Violations, 1985-2000
Source: Crime in the United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, various years).
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Controlled Substance Act
•
•
Controlled
•
substances that have
•
no established
medical usage,
•
cannot be used
safely, and have great •
•
potential for abuse.
This schedule
•
includes:
•
Schedule I -
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heroin
LSD
mescaline
peyote
methaqualone
psilocybin
marijuana
hashish
other specified
hallucinogens
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Controlled Substance Act
Schedule II Substances defined as
drugs with high abuse
potential for which there
is currently accepted
pharmacological or
medical use. Most are
considered addictive.
Examples:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
opium
morphine
codeine
cocaine
PCP
other
derivatives
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Controlled Substance Act
Schedule III This schedule involves
lower abuse potential
than drugs in Schedules
I or II. They have an
accepted medical use,
but may lead to high
level of psychological
dependence or to
moderate or low physical
dependence. Examples
include:
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• Many drugs
found in
Schedule II,
but in
derivative or
diluted form.
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Controlled Substance Act
Schedule IV These have a relatively
low potential for abuse,
are useful in
established medical
treatments, and involve
only limited risk of
psychological or
physical dependency.
Examples include:
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• depressants
• minor
tranquilizers
• some
stimulants
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Controlled Substance Act
Schedule V Prescription drugs
with low potential
for abuse and only
limited possibility
for psychological
or physical
dependence.
Examples:
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• Cough medicines
containing opium,
morphine, or
codeine
• Anti-diarrhetics
containing opium,
morphine, or
codeine.
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Drug Abuse Legislation
• 1988 - Anti-Drug Act of 1988
• aimed at obtaining a drug free America
• increased penalties for “recreational” drug
•
•
•
users
made it more difficult for suspected drug
dealers to purchase weapons
included possibility of capital punishment
for drug-related murders
provided federal funds to fight drugs in
high traffic areas
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Drug Abuse Legislation
• 1990 - Crime Control Act of 1990
• doubled appropriations for law
enforcement grants to state and
local communities to fight drugs
• improved drug control educational
programs aimed at schools
• expanded drug enforcement
in rural states
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Drug Abuse Legislation
1990 - Crime Control Act of 1990 (con’t)
• expanded regulation of precursor
chemicals used in manufacture of
illegal drugs
• sanctioned anabolic steroids
• created “drug free school zones”
• enhanced agents ability to seize
property used in drug transactions
or purchased with drug proceeds
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Drug Abuse Legislation
• 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994
• increased funding for rural anti-crime
and drug efforts and drug treatment
programs
• created a treatment schedule for all
drug-addicted federal prisoners
• required post-conviction drug testing of
all federal prisoners upon release
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Drug Abuse Legislation
• 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994 (con’t)
• tripled penalties for using
children to deal near schools
and playgrounds
• expanded federal death penalty
to cover offenders involved in
large scale drug trafficking
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Drug Abuse Legislation
• 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994 (con’t)
• mandated life imprisonment for
those convicted of three violent
felonies or drug offenses
• mandated stiff penalties for
drug crimes committed by
gangs
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Investigation
• Investigation of the illegal
production, transportation, sale, and
use of controlled substances is a
major area of police activity.
• Two legal concepts are abandonment
and curtilage.
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Drugs, Crimes, and Social
Problems
3 Dimensions
1. possession, use, or sale of controlled
substances which violates antidrug
laws
2. crimes by drug users to obtain more
drugs
3. organized criminal activities and money
laundering activities
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Drugs, Crimes, and Social
Problems
• Current data indicates that cocaine
has become the country’s most
dangerous commonly used drug.
• It is available in all major American
metropolitan areas and most small
communities.
• Crack is available in large urban areas.
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Drugs, Crimes, and Social
Problems
• Heroin is a highly seductive and
addictive drug, which produces
euphoria.
• Heroin abuse has been fairly consistent
over the past few decades.
• Younger users are using heroin.
• Alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana are
concurrent problems for heroin users.
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Drugs, Crimes, and Social
Problems
Money Laundering
A process used by drug dealers to
hide the sources of their revenues
to avoid taxes and disguise the
financial evidence of drug dealing.
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Drugs, Crimes, and Social
Problems
Narcoterrorism
• link between drug traffickers and
insurgent groups in the
trafficking of narcotics
• mutually beneficial to both
parties;
financial benefits and
protection
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Solving the Drug Problem
1.strict enforcement
2.asset forfeiture
3.interdiction
4.crop control
5.education and treatment
6.legalization and decriminalization
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