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Narcophobia: drugs prohibition and the generation of human rights abuses

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Abstract

This paper is concerned with the negative aspects of global drugs prohibition. The paper argues that prohibition, which is driven by moralism rather than empirical research, creates a black market that is regulated by violent entrepreneurs, and particular in developing countries where there is a lack of economic opportunities for the poor, offers the only feasible employment options. The paper suggests that the results of experimental legislation should be taken seriously. The militarisation of prohibition enforcement has hindered the advancement of democracy and led to violence and increases in human rights abuses. In conclusion it is argued that the current system of global prohibition creates more problems than it solves, and that issues of drug production and trade need to be dealt with by regulation from within a development perspective.

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Notes

  1. Coincidence or not, it is interesting to note that in China, according to Dikotter (2003), “the commodity that most benefited from prohibition was the ready-made cigarette”, a market dominated by the US and the UK.

  2. A/RES/S-20/2, "Political Declaration", General Assembly 20th Special Session, 9th Plenary Meeting. June 10 1998.

  3. Brazil has the larger population of opioid (635,000) and cocaine users (890,000) in South America as well as the third highest rate of amphetamines’ consumption in the world, according to the 2009 World Drug Report (UNODC 2009).

  4. Analysis of data from National Household Survey (PNAD, 1999 cited by Paes de Barros et al. 2001).

  5. Reports from Human Rights Watch (1996) and Amnesty International (2005) have well documented evidence of police practices such as torture and extrajudicial executions in areas of social exclusion.

  6. Official data from the National System of Toxic Pharmacology Information (Ministry of Health)

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  1. Centre for Human Rights, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics, London, UK

    Fernanda Mena

  2. Department of Sociology, London School of Economics, London, UK

    Dick Hobbs

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  1. Fernanda Mena
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  2. Dick Hobbs
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Correspondence to Dick Hobbs.

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Mena, F., Hobbs, D. Narcophobia: drugs prohibition and the generation of human rights abuses. Trends Organ Crim 13, 60–74 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-009-9087-8

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