Sveriges narkotikapolitik har en tydlig noll vision; Sverige skall bli ett drogfritt samhälle. För att uppnå det målet följer Sverige en så kallad nolltoleransmodell, vilket innebär en strikt policy som säger att all hantering och bruk oavsett volym och syfte är olagligt. Jag argumenterar att det är en skadlig och ineffektiv policy att applicera på drogproblematiken i Sverige och argumenterar därför istället för att införa en så kallad skadereducerande policy. Detta är istället en policy som accepterar att droger är en del av samhället. En sådan policy jobbar främst med förebyggande och behandlande åtgärder, jag argumenterar för en avkriminalisering av personligt bruk av drog. Jag kommer använda mig av empirisk källor och moralfilosofiska argument för att påvisa att en skadereducerade policy gynnar samhället både ur ett socialt och ekonomiskt perspektiv.

Between 2003 and 2007, concerns about the illegal drug crystal methamphetamine (meth) increased dramatically in British Columbia despite research data that indicated usage rates were low among the general youth and adult populations. This dissertation draws on the insights of social constructionist theories that challenge the assumption that social problems are the natural outcome of ‘society’s ills,’ and explores the claims-making activities including public policy, that construct a ‘social problem’ like meth. This project draws on semi-structured interviews with members of citizen groups, policy-makers in the B.C. provincial government, representatives from health authorities and community-based services. It also includes textual analysis of key public policy and other documents. My analysis explores the narratives of illicit drug use that emerged from this data. The findings indicate that public policy officials and citizen groups held different perspectives about what kind of problem meth posed, as well as about the appropriate programs and policies government should use to respond to this drug. To problematize meth, citizen group members drew on long-standing emotionally driven claims informed by law enforcement and media, to shape meth as a uniquely addictive and dangerous agent with the potential to ensnare innocent victims from all walks of life. Public policy officials, on the other hand, insisted that governmental responses to meth must be similar to other prohibited substances, and should be evidence-based to avoid the influence of politics. These evidence-based responses, however, were shaped by values-based frameworks emerging from the marriage between neo-liberal ideas about governing and what Foucault calls ‘governmentality’. The twin pressures of public outrage, and this marriage of ideologies, shaped a hybrid of governmental approaches to the meth ‘problem’ that illustrated the complex and contradictory forces at work inside state institutions and between state institutions and non-governmental actors. Citizen groups pressured government using claims that bypassed scientific ‘evidence’ about drug use, in favour of frightening assertions about the need to protect children from the supposedly uniquely dangerous effects of this drug. These claims were used to gain support from politicians, resulting in new funding and program initiatives such as the Crystal Meth Secretariat that took as axiomatic a criminalized approach to drug use that excluded harm reduction measures. These claims depended upon and highlighted law enforcement and media based claims about meth and illicit drug use. But in neither case did official government responses, or crystal meth groups scrutinize or challenge the health and social inequities that shape illicit drug use. Rather both governmental and citizen group responses focused on change at the individual level eschewing sociological insights about the social conditions that shape illicit drug use and its harms. / Graduate / 2013-04-24

Over the past decade, public policy making and implementation in some European and North American countries have been in the form of networks of public, private and voluntary sector organisations. The changing nature of governance, to governing with and through networks, is known as ‘network governance’ (Rhodes, 1997). Nonetheless, it is ambiguous if network governance is a global phenomenon or merely applicable to the developed world context. Since the evidence of network governance from developing countries is hitherto scarce in the literature, this research, therefore, fills the current knowledge gap by examining network governance in Thailand. The research explores and explains the presence (or absence) of network governance in Thailand through Resource Dependence Theory, using illicit drug policy implementation in Chiang Mai province as a case study. A quantitative survey (N = 217) and a qualitative semi-structured interview (N = 31) were employed to accumulate primary data. The findings reveal that governance in the case under consideration had not shifted towards networks. Although it was found that there is a moderate degree of resource interdependence between state and non-state organisations involved in the policy, it was not sufficient to verify the existence of network governance. This was because power asymmetry existed in the relationship, with the state sector being the power-advantaged one. State agencies avoided collaborating with the non-state sector due to the fear of an expected loss of autonomy, whereas non-state organisations did not perceive resources from the state sector as being of critical importance. Thus, network governance was mainly absent from this case. This research joins broader intellectual debates that network governance is not a global phenomenon but rather a case-specific one, which suggests that public administration scholars should take the distinctiveness of context into account. Moreover, this study contributes to the illicit drug policy making in Thailand by recommending that deregulations of some bureaucratic rules and cross-sector organisational learning are vital to facilitate network governance.

Supervised injection sites (SISs) have become subject to much political and social controversy in Canada since the late 1990s. Since the implementation of North America’s first SIS, Insite, in 2003 in Vancouver, the controversy has reached new levels. Despite the increasing evidence base available regarding the effectiveness of SISs as a harm reduction strategy trans-nationally, the implementation of this intervention in Canada prevails within public and parliamentary debates. Guided by the theoretical contributions of Joel Best (2008) on claims-making and the construction of social problems, this thesis explores the SIS debate in Canada and the assertions advanced with respect to the implementation of SISs. Building on the available literature, the author identifies numerous types of claims advanced by proponents and opponents of SISs through a qualitative content analysis of 164 newspaper documents from The Vancouver Sun, The Ottawa Sun and The Ottawa Citizen. It was determined that claimsmakers often present the intervention as a solution to the ‘drug problem’ or part in parcel of the problem. Opponents in particular attempt to construct the intervention as harmful for the community in that the implementation of a SIS would exacerbate various aspects of the ‘drug problem’ including drug abuse and crime. Very rarely, however, claimsmakers suggest the SIS is merely one strategy to addressing public health issues related to injection drug use and that there is ‘no easy fix’ to this ‘drug problem’. Further, the author applies the findings from this analysis to make sense of the Canadian federal government’s proposed policy response, The Respect for Communities Act, towards the establishment of SISs.

The main objective of my diploma thesis was to explain the principles and basic terms of drug policy in the Czech Republic, and to illustrate all the issues of government regulations in this area. This paper is trying to confront two different kinds of health services. The first one based on liberal principles, without any government intervention (system in USA), and the second one demarcating with regulations and restrictions, devoid of any free market fundamentals (system in EU). It describes the relationship between patient and doctor, and points out the different number of information, they dispose of. This paper is trying to explain the problem of skewed distribution of information in society. It presents how the government regulations in the free market area destroy the source allocation efficiency and goes against the satisfaction of customers' needs.

The pharmaceutical companies are considered as one of the most influential interest groups within drug policy, or in general within healthcare system. Therefore, this diploma thesis is focused on the influence of the pharmaceutical manufacturers on legislative framework that forms the drug policy, on the impact on the concrete implementation of drug policy and finally on the influence on prescription, sales and public opinion. Based on an analysis of the pharmaceutical market and the drug policy of the Czech Republic, the diploma thesis defines the most common interests of the pharmaceutical companies which they are trying to push through lobbying. Furthermore, the thesis identifies the access points through which these interests can push through and tries to illustrate these facts on concrete examples.

Criminological aspects of drug-related crime Abstract This master`s thesis deals with a number of criminological aspects and issues related to drug-related criminality, in particular with legislation that takes into account the specific impact of selected drugs. In this context the thesis analyzes the drugs` impact on secondary drug-related crime, the death rate and health of their users and additional negative social and economic consequences related to such drugs. Following the evaluation of these harmful effects the thesis proposes potential changes to policy on such drugs and compares it to policies of foreign countries on individual drugs. These changes consist of various proposals including the decriminalization or legalization of certain means of handling of individual drugs. The thesis also examines national legislation currently in force related to selected individual drugs. Its conclusions are reached through a variety of researches and statistical data. The thesis consists of eight chapters which are preceded by a brief introduction to the selected topic. The first chapter lays out basic terminology used in this thesis. The second chapter deals with historical cases of drug policies such as the Chinese policy on opium in 19th and 20th century or the prohibition in the United States between 1920...

This thesis focuses on the issue of cannabis legalization in Colorado. Legislation adopted at the federal level prohibits production, distribution and consumption of cannabis. Through public ballot initiatives, use of cannabis for non-medical purposes was legalized on the state level. This approach represents a fundamental change in drug policy and, in the future, it could affect federal drug policy regarding cannabis. This thesis uses the example of Colorado to illustrate the inconsistency in the legal approach to cannabis between some of the U.S. states and the federal government. By describing and analyzing the control measures in Colorado, this thesis aims to identify various regulatory risks, which might cause conflicts with the federal government. The thesis points to the liberal aspects of the regulation in Colorado and confronts the discrepancy with the directive of the federal government to establish a strong regulatory framework that is consistent with federal priorities in the area of law enforcement. The thesis contains a set of recommendations that contribute to reducing potential negative effects. Even though the federal government did not interfere with state's cannabis legalization, these recommendations could prevent a possible clash with the federal government, which still de jure...

In February 2017, Tanzanian President John Magufuli publicly declared a war on drugs, an unexpected change in policy in a country previously leading the way in harm reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The war on drugs, a set of policies aimed at reducing drug supply and use through the punishment, forced treatment and criminalization of drug users, is a part of Magufuli’s strategy to ‘clean up’ Tanzanian society. Prior to his election, the Tanzanian government largely ignored treatment and drug policy, and foreign NGOs, in partnership with local activists, funded and implemented harm reduction interventions. This thesis seeks to understand a puzzling reversal from harm reduction to repression, posing the questions: 1) How did the Tanzanian government implement a war on drugs that went against the goals of a number of powerful foreign actors funding services for drug users? 2) What have been the outcomes for drug users in Tanzania as a result of the drug policies and programming implemented since the election of Magufuli? 3) How does Tanzania’s war on drugs shape international and domestic approaches to drug use and drug policy in the country? In the fall of 2018, I interviewed foreign and local NGO workers, officials from major international organizations and former drug users and activists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Using interviews and observations during this fieldwork, I explore the realities on the ground underlying both the drug policy changes towards drug users implemented over 2016/17, and the more public crackdown on drug use in 2017. I rely on a constructivist methodology to challenge and interrogate the narratives being produced by the Tanzanian government, which echoed harsh, war on drugs ideology but also boasted about comprehensive harm reduction programming, a contradictory position I also explore in this thesis. In answer to my first research question, I argue that the Tanzanian government evaded donor pressure or interference in pursuing an anti-drug user agenda through strategies of appeasement, intimidation and the exploitation of a neglected policy area. The Tanzanian government touted its harm reduction program at the international level to produce a narrative of continued support for drug users, appeasing donors and foreign agencies while, in reality, narrowing the scope of treatment to the detriment of people who use drugs. The government also used intimidation tactics, threatening the work of foreign NGOs working with vulnerable population, which chose to stay and provide limited services rather than risk being kicked out of the country. The Tanzanian government, with limited resources, took advantage of donors’ focus on HIV/AIDS and lack of commitment to drug users, to maneuver and achieve a repressive policy agenda without interference. I build on this argument using the evidence I gathered during fieldwork to answer to my second research question. I argue that the outcomes of the Tanzanian drug war agenda were increased police harassment, higher drug prices and fear of punishment among drug users which led to riskier drug use, greater difficulty in accessing services and greater economic vulnerability. Drug users had to go farther, spend more money on drugs and face harassment as they tried to avoid dopesickness. Policy changes resulted in the closure of harm reduction centres frequented by drug users, limited access to needle exchange and limited the outreach efforts of local and international NGOs, making life much more difficult for people who use drugs. During my research, I found that, contrary to some of the literature I read which posited the war on drugs as a Western strategy of political control, the Tanzanian government was actually producing war on drugs narratives, and using these narratives to justify its repressive policies. This finding supports the answer to my third research question. I argue that the Tanzanian government produced narratives of drugs hindering development, causing corruption and threatening national unity. I also argue that donors such as the United Kingdom, and foreign agencies working in HIV/AIDS, are reproducing these narratives and are following an agenda, set by the Tanzanian government, that does not meet the needs of drug users and supports the centralization and repression of the Magufuli regime. Foreign agencies shifted from supporting drug users, to instead following an agenda that does not meet their goals in reaching drug users. Donors did not notice or prioritize the increased abuse of drug users’ human rights at all, accepting the provision of methadone as evidence of support for drug users and continuing to provide general budget support to the Tanzanian government and even providing specific funding to limit drug supply in the country. The effectiveness of Tanzania producing such narratives, and enacting the repressive policies war on drugs narratives justify, reveals global antipathy towards actually supporting people who use drugs and advancing the rights of people who use drugs. In upholding old war on drugs narratives and implementing policies that attack people who use drugs, Tanzania is contributing to an international consensus that the war on drugs is justified as long as basic treatment is provided. This thesis, using the voices of activists and advocates on the ground, deconstructs the Tanzanian war on drugs. I argue for the inclusion of those with lived experiences in shaping and changing the repressive drug policies and epistemologies that are being produced by the Tanzanian state and are being accepted by the international community.

Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka socialarbetares uppfattningar om Sveriges narkotikapolitik och dess inverkan på det sociala arbetets praktik. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien var stämplingsteorin samt socialkonstruktionismen utifrån den hermeneutiska forskningsansatsen. Metoden utgår från datainsamling genom enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer med nio respondenter som arbetar nära personer med beroendeproblematik. Datainsamlingen bearbetades utifrån den kvalitativa metoden genom en tolkande tematisk analys. Resultatet utmynnade i fem olika teman vilka är följande: Ambivalens, Moral & etik, Morot istället för piska, Vem kan göra vad? och Vägen framåt. Dessa belyser upplevelserna av brister i den svenska narkotikapolitiken som det just nu inte finns en lösning på. Enligt socialarbetare saknas det en sammanhållen vårdkedja men även de enskilda delarna i vårdkedjan behöver förbättring: tidigare och mer omfattande prevention, fler skadereducerande insatser samt bättre eftervård.