John R. Pamplin II, Saba Rouhani,, Corey S. Davis, Carla King, and Tarlise N. Townsend,

The US overdose crisis continues to worsen and is disproportionately harming Black and Hispanic/Latino people. Although the “War on Drugs” continues to shape drug policy—at the disproportionate expense of Black and Hispanic/Latino people—states have taken some steps to reduce War on Drugs–related harms and adopt a public health–centered approach. However, the rhetoric regarding these changes has, in many cases, outstripped reality. Using overdose Good Samaritan Laws (GSLs) as a case study, we argue that public health–oriented policy changes made in some states are undercut by the broader enduring environment of a structurally racist drug criminalization agenda that continues to permeate and constrict most attempts at change. Drawing from our collective experiences in public health research and practice, we describe 3 key barriers to GSL effectiveness: the narrow parameters within which they apply, the fact that they are subject to police discretion, and the passage of competing laws that further criminalize people who use illicit drugs. All reveal a persisting climate of drug criminalization that may reduce policy effectiveness and explain why current reforms may be destined for failure and further disadvantage Black and Hispanic/Latino people who use drug

Am J Public Health. 2023;113(S1):S43–S48. https://doi.org/ 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307037)

By Tobias Kammersgaard

Background: In 2018 the Norwegian government appointed a committee to prepare the implementation of a drug decriminalization reform. The overall goal of the committee was to propose a model where responsibility for society’s response to the use and possession of illegal drugs for personal use would be transferred from the justice sector to the health service, under the catchphrase ‘from punishment to help’. While the proposal ultimately did not get the necessary backing in parliament, the proposed reform still constitutes a very comprehensive and recent proposal for reforming national drug policy and it provides an ideal case for studying contemporary discourses on ‘drug decriminalization’. Methods: The analysis of this reform proposal is guided by the post-structuralist “What’s the Problem Represented to be” (WPR) approach, which is used for investigating the problem representation(s) in the proposal, as well as the rationalities, practices and deep-seated assumptions underpinning these. In doing this, the paper explores how the strategy represents both changes and continuities in discourses around illicit drugs and the people who use them. Results: Based on the WPR approach, two problem representations in the proposal are identified: the ‘problem of illicit drug use’ and the ‘problem of criminalization’. However, the ‘problem of illicit drug use’ is argued to be the authoritative representation that takes precedence over the other. In that regard, the paper points to how the proposed shift from the justice sector to the health sector would only be partial, given that the role of the police and drug law enforcement would be retained in the reform. Furthermore, the paper points to how illicit drug use continued to be fundamentally pathologized in the proposed reform. Conclusion: The paper concludes with a discussion about the overall ambition of shifting from a crime-centered to a health-centered approach to people who use drugs and some reflections on the potential of an additional rights-based approach is provided.

International Journal of Drug Policy. Volume 113, March 2023, 103963.

By Kellen Russoniello , Sheila P. Vakharia , Jules Netherland , Theshia Naidoo , Haven Wheelock , Tera Hurst and Saba Rouhani

In November 2020, Oregon voters approved Measure 110, a ballot initiative that decriminalized possession of small quantities of all drugs and allocated hundreds of millions of dollars annually to health services for people who use drugs. Implementation of Measure 110 is ongoing, but several effects are noticeable in the first two years since the measure passed. Among these are substantial decreases in possession of controlled substances arrests and an infusion of funding into harm reduction services that have not traditionally enjoyed a sustainable funding source. This paper analyzes the provisions of Measure 110, examines its early impacts, successes, and challenges, and outlines lessons that jurisdictions contemplating decriminalizing drug possession in the U.S. and globally should consider. \

Drug Science, Policy and Law Volume 9: 1–16 , 2023

By Jack K. Reed

In 2013, following the passage of Amendment 64 which allows for the retail sale and possession of marijuana, the Colorado General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 13-283. This bill mandated that the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Public Safety conduct a study of the impacts of Amendment 64, particularly as these relate to law enforcement activities. This report seeks to establish and present the baseline measures for the metrics specified in S.B. 13-283 (C.R.S. 24-33.4-516). The information presented here should be interpreted with caution. The majority of the data sources vary considerably in terms of what exists historically and the reliability of some sources has improved over time. Consequently, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the potential effects of marijuana legalization and commercialization on public safety, public health, or youth outcomes, and this may always be the case due to the lack of historical data. Furthermore, the measurement of available data elements can be affected by very context of marijuana legalization. For example, the decreasing social stigma regarding marijuana use could lead individuals to be more likely to report use on surveys and also to health workers in emergency departments and poison control centers, making marijuana use appear to increase when perhaps it has not. Additionally, law enforcement officials and prosecuting attorneys continue to struggle with enforcement of the complex and sometimes conflicting marijuana laws that remain. Finally, the lack of comparable Federal data across many metrics makes it difficult to compare changes in Colorado to other jurisdictions which may have not legalized marijuana. In sum, then, the lack of pre-commercialization data, the decreasing social stigma, and challenges to law enforcement combine to make it difficult to translate these preliminary findings into definitive statements of outcomes.

Denver: Colorado Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Justice Office of Research and Statistics , 2021. 188p.

By Corey Whichard and Katelyn Kelley

There is limited research on internet sting operations. It is unclear whether these operations are effective at deterring or reducing crime. Using administrative data, WSIPP examined 299 Net Nanny arrests made between August 2015 and September 2022. Most arrests (96%) came from one of two sting scenarios. Scenario #1 (57%): Undercover officers posed online as a minor posting personal ads on dating websites or internet forums. Scenario #2 (39%): Undercover officers posed online as a parent seeking adults to engage in sexual activity with their children. WSIPP compared two groups: 1) individuals with Net Nanny cases that resulted in conviction and 2) individuals with cases from the same time period that resulted in conviction for similar offenses (not Net Nanny). Individuals in both groups exhibit similar demographic characteristics and criminal history. On average, across these specific measures individuals convicted through Net Nanny resemble people convicted of sexual crimes against minors who were arrested via traditional police tactics.

Olympia: Washington State Institute for Public Policy . 2023. 32p.

By Miguel A. Mascarúa Lara

How does imperfect law enforcement affect drug trafficking, predation on firms, informality, and aggregate production? To quantify it, a general equilibrium occupational model is developed in which there is room for drug trafficking, crime against businesses, and tax evasion in the presence of imperfect institutions. Detailed micro-level data on business victimization and cartels in Mexico are used to calibrate the model. It is found that the imperfect application of the law generates considerable losses in production derived from a misallocation of occupations and resources. Finally, using counterfactual simulations, the effects of policies that seek to improve the allocation of resources are calculated. With complete law enforcement in the illegal drug market, the workers in that sector would relocate to the productive sector, and aggregate production would increase. Without crimes against businesses, which would allow a reallocation of work, capital, and occupations to the formal sector, production would increase even more. However, the largest effects come from a decrease in informality

Banco de México Working Papers N° 2022-16 . Mexico City, Bank of Mexico, 2022. 55p.

By Giulia Berlusconi

This paper investigates the impact of the targeting of key players by law enforcement on the structure, communication strategies, and activities of a drug trafficking network. Data are extracted from judicial court documents. The unique nature of the investigation – which saw a key player being arrested mid-investigation but police monitoring continuing for another year – allows to compare the network before and after targeting. This paper combines a quantitative element where network statistics and exponential random graph models are used to describe and explain structural changes over time, and a qualitative element where the content of wiretapped conversations is analysed. After law enforcement targeting, network members favoured security over efficiency, although criminal collaboration continued after the arrest of the key player. This paper contributes to the growing literature on the efficiency-security trade-off in criminal networks, and discusses policy implications for repressive policies in illegal drug markets.

Global Crime . 2022, Vol. 23, No. 1, 44–64

By Beatriz Magaloni, Edgar Franco Vivanco, Vanessa Melo

State interventions against drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) sometimes work to improve security, but often exacerbate violence. To understand why, this paper offers a theory about different social order dynamics among five types of criminal regimes – Insurgent, Bandit, Symbiotic, Predatory, and Anarchic. These differ according to whether criminal groups confront or collude with state actors; predate or cooperate with the community; and hold a monopoly or contest territory with rival DTOs. Police interventions in these criminal orders pose different challenges and are associated with markedly different local security outcomes. Evidence for the theory is provided by the use a multi-method research design combining quasi-experimental statistical analyses, extensive qualitative research and a large N survey in the context of Rio de Janeiro’s “Pacifying Police Units” (UPPs), which sought to reclaim control of the slums from organized criminal groups.

American Political Science Review. 2020. 51p.

By  Martin Lundsteen &  Miquel Fernández González 

Recent studies have argued for more nuanced understandings of zero tolerance (ZT) policing, rendering it essential to analyze the significance and actual workings of the policies in practice, including the context in which they are introduced. This article aims to accomplish this through a comparison of two case studies in Catalonia: one in the neighborhood of Raval in Barcelona and one in Salt—a municipality in the comarca (or county) of Girona. We identify a transformation in the use of ZT policies in Catalonia and a con‑tradiction between their social effects and proclaimed objectives. This article attempts to address how specific sociocultural groups gain power and privilege from these policies. The main argument is that a set of commonsensical ideas have become hegemonic, which allows and naturalizes certain sociocultural practices in urban space, while persecuting oth‑ers, fundamentally pitting two categories against each other: the desired civil citizen and the undesirable and uncivil stranger

Critical Criminology volume 29, pages837–852 (2021)

By Graeme Blair et al.

More than one-fourth of the world's population lives in conditions of in-security because of high levels of crime and violence, especially in the Global South. Although the police are central to reducing crime and violence, they are also often per-petrators of unjust harm against citizens.We investigated the effects of community policing, a set of practices designed to build trust between citizens and police, increase the co-production of public safety, and reduce crime. Community policing is meant to improve outcome by increasing engagement between citizens and police through increased foot patrols, community meetings, and the adoption of problem-oriented policing strat-egies that address concerns raised by citizens.When cooperation leads to effective police responses, this approach reinforces citizen trust and facilitates further cooperation, creating a virtuous cycle. Community policing has beenimplementedaroundtheworldoneverycon-tinent. However, although there is evidence for its positive effects in rich countries, there is no systematic evidence about whether com-munity policing effectively generates trust and reduces crime in the Global South.

Science. 2021 Nov 26;374(6571):eabd3446. doi: 10.1126/science.abd3446. Epub 2021 Nov 26. PMID: 34822276.

By  Annabelle Heckler, Gin Armstrong, Derek Seidman, and Katie Unger , et al.

  This dangerous truth has never been clearer. After the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks sparked the largest sustained mass mobilization in U.S. history in 2020, conversations about police accountability and police budgets moved from activist circles to the mainstream. At the same time, after years of deafening silence, some of the largest corporations in the world made public statements in support of Black Lives Matter. Yet, beyond the black squares on Instagram and tweets demanding justice for Black people murdered by police, many of these same corporations have continued to fund the very systems that put Black lives in danger.

Color of Change. Public Accountability Initiative (LittleSis), 2021. 53p.

By The Calgary Police Commission   

   Both Indigenous and Black participants want better treatment by CPS. They want CPS to appreciate where they have come from, what they’ve experienced, and to understand how this impacts their impressions of and experiences with CPS. They believe this level of understanding can help improve their interactions with CPS. They also would like to see CPS trained on cultural sensitivities to improve the outcome of interactions with all BIPOC citizens. Alternative call response received support from both groups, stemming from the shared perception that there are other professionals who possess the skills and expertise needed to diffuse and de-escalate calls requiring crisis response. For Indigenous participants, negative associations with social workers and health care workers means they are not an appropriately trained profession to respond to crisis calls with Indigenous people. Both Black and Indigenous participants spoke of the need for: ▪ More BIPOC diversity within the ranks of CPS, ▪ Mandatory anti-racism and cultural competency training for CPS officers to enhance relations with all BIPOC groups, and ▪ Inclusion initiatives to encourage greater involvement of CPS in the communities it serves that cultivates positive interactions with Indigenous and Black citizens.eractions. The officer’s role should be to deescalate situations and use of force should be a last resort  

Calgary: Calgary Police Commission, 2021. 71p.

By The Calgary Police Commission

  The Commission’s community perception research has evolved over the past five years from annual quantitative surveys to quantitative and qualitative methods alternating annually. The research is customized and updated annually to provide insights that are relevant for CPS and the Commission each year. In 2023, we conducted qualitative research focused on the impact of communications and transparency on trust in CPS. The research was designed to focus on two specific groups to understand potential differences in communication needs: 1. Calgarians who trust CPS 2. Calgarians who do not trust CPS This research will help inform actions to improve communications and trust in the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

Calgary: The Police Commission 2023. 52p.

By Jessica Reichert, Brandon Del Pozo, and Bruce Taylor

Fatal opioid overdoses continue to break historical records. Stigma toward people with opioid use disorder (OUD) can negatively impact treatment access, retention, and recovery. Attitudes and beliefs of police officers can profoundly shape key discretionary decisions. Therefore, we examined police officer views indicating stigma toward those with OUD. We administered an online survey to select Illinois police departments using a stratified random sampling strategy with a final sample of 248 officers from 27 police departments. We asked officers questions measuring stigmatizing attitudes toward people with OUD including distrust, blame, shame, and fear. We found officers held somewhat stigmatizing views with a mean score of 4.0 on a scale of 1 (least stigmatic) to 6 (most stigmatic). Regression results showed certain officer characteristics were associated with more stigmatizing attitudes of blaming and distrust of those with OUD, including gender, education, race, years in policing, and department size. Since most officers in the sample held at least some stigmatizing views toward people with OUD, this may impede the feasibility and acceptability of criminal justice interventions meant to improve behavioral health, such as police deflection programs that link people who use drugs to treatment in lieu of arrest. Departments should offer officer training and education on substance use disorders, treatment for addiction, and the potential for a person’s recovery. Training should allow officers to hear directly from, or learn about, personal experiences of people who use drugs and have been in recovery, as this type of interaction has been shown to reduce stigma.

Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 2023. 23p.

by Adam Cotter 

  Perceptions of and experiences with police and the justice system among the Black and Indigenous populations in Canada: Highlights  The Black population and Indigenous people (First Nations people, Métis, and Inuit) living in Canada have distinct histories, backgrounds, geographic distributions, and current conditions and situations. These factors should be taken into account when interpreting and evaluating data focusing on these populations. While these groups are distinct, their perceptions and experiences are explored in this article to highlight similarities and differences relative to the population who is neither Indigenous nor a member of a population group designated as visible minority.  According to the 2020 General Social Survey (GSS) on Social Identity, one in five Black (21%) and Indigenous (22%) people have little or no confidence in police, double the proportion among those who were neither Indigenous nor a visible minority (11%).  Based on data from the 2019 GSS on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization), Black and Indigenous people are more likely to rate police performance poorly. About one in three Black (30%) and Indigenous (32%) people said that police were performing poorly in at least one part of their job, a higher proportion than non-Indigenous, non-visible minorities (19%).  Perceptions of the police varied among the Black population. Almost six in ten (58%) Canadian-born Black people rated at least one element of police performance poorly, well above the proportion of Black immigrants (15%).  Relative to the overall population, Black people and Indigenous people had particularly negative perceptions of the ability of police to treat people fairly and be approachable and easy to talk to.

Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2022. 31p.

By  Undercover Policing Inquiry (UK)

The report which this foreword introduces is the first fruit of the work undertaken by the Undercover Policing Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Sir Christopher Pitchford from July 2015 until July 2017, and under my chairmanship since then. It covers the first 14 years, approximately, of the Special Operations Squad (SOS)/Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a unit of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) set up in July 1968 (hereafter referred to as the SDS, unless specifically referring to the SOS). It attempts to set out the history of the unit and to draw conclusions about the purposes for which it was set up and continued, and their justification. The findings of fact and conclusions are mine and mine alone. These findings are based on multiple sources of evidence. As in the case of any historical inquiry, the starting point must be contemporaneous documents created by those who participated in the events being investigated. Sufficient documents from the MPS and public sources have survived to permit reliable findings to be made about the creation of the unit and the purpose it served in 1968. The documentary record then becomes sketchier until November 1974. From then on, Security Service files contain an extensive and substantially complete record of the intelligence gathered by the undercover officers deployed by the unit. I know that different views are held about the lawfulness and propriety of the retention of so much personal information for so long. I do not intend to enter into this debate, but only to make the trite observation that, without this evidence, accurate reconstruction of what occurred would not have been possible. I wish to express my gratitude to the Security Service for the collation and production of these files. Flesh was put on the bones of the documentary material by evidence given by surviving former undercover officers and their managers, and by members of the public with whom they interacted. As will be apparent from the content of this report, their evidence was, almost without exception, of significant value in enabling me to understand what had occurred, in particular about matters such as personal relationships, which were not documented. I acknowledge the inconvenience, at best, which the provision of this evidence has caused to them. I am grateful to all of them for the trouble they have taken to assist me in my task  

Undercover Policing Inquiry (UK), 2023. 120p.

By Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau

A penetrating and insightful study of privacy and security in telecommunications for a post-9/11, post-Patriot Act world.Telecommunication has never been perfectly secure. The Cold War culture of recording devices in telephone receivers and bugged embassy offices has been succeeded by a post-9/11 world of NSA wiretaps and demands for data retention. Although the 1990s battle for individual and commercial freedom to use cryptography was won, growth in the use of cryptography has been slow. Meanwhile, regulations requiring that the computer and communication industries build spying into their systems for government convenience have increased rapidly. The application of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act has expanded beyond the intent of Congress to apply to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other modern data services; attempts are being made to require ISPs to retain their data for years in case the government wants it; and data mining techniques developed for commercial marketing applications are being applied to widespread surveillance of the population.In Privacy on the Line, Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau strip away the hype surrounding the policy debate over privacy to examine the national security, law enforcement, commercial, and civil liberties issues. They discuss the social function of privacy, how it underlies a democratic society, and what happens when it is lost. This updated and expanded edition revises their original—and prescient—discussions of both policy and technology in light of recent controversies over NSA spying and other government threats to communications privacy.

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010. 496p.

By John Kleinig • Peter Mameli • Seumas Miller • Douglas Salane Adina Schwartz

This study is principally concerned with the ethical dimensions of identity management technology – electronic surveillance, the mining of personal data, and profiling – in the context of transnational crime and global terrorism. The ethical challenge at the heart of this study is to establish an acceptable and sustainable equilibrium between two central moral values in contemporary liberal democracies, namely, security and privacy. Both values are essential to individual liberty, but they come into conflict in times when civil order is threatened, as has been the case from late in the twentieth century, with the advent of global terrorism and trans-national crime. We seek to articulate legally sustainable, politically possible, and technologically feasible, global ethical standards for identity management technology and policies in liberal democracies in the contemporary global security context. Although the standards in question are to be understood as global ethical standards potentially to be adopted not only by the United States, but also by the European Union, India, Australasia, and other contemporary liberal democratic states, we take as our primary focus the tensions that have arisen between the United States and the European Union.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2011. 304p.

By The European Parliament

Cannabis is by far the most commonly used illicit drug (referred to as drug in this briefing) in the European Union (EU), where its distribution, cultivation, possession and use (consumption) are largely prohibited. The prohibition of drug-related activities other than those performed for medical or scientific purposes is the defining feature of the international drug control system. Set up by the United Nations (UN), this system is composed of three complementary conventions, to which all EU Member States are parties. Various countries around the world have made use of the flexibility of the UN system, not applying criminal penalties in some cases (e.g. for possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use) or replacing them with administrative ones. The UN bodies monitoring compliance with the conventions seem to have come to accept these policy choices. However, they remain resistant to the still rare yet increasingly common practice of legalising the recreational use of cannabis, which may entail regulating drug distribution and sale in a manner akin to that for alcohol and tobacco. In the EU, drug policy has remained primarily the Member States' preserve. The EU has fostered the Member States' cooperation on law enforcement and health-related issues, while at the same time respecting their diverse philosophies on how to address recreational drug use. National approaches range from very restrictive policies that prioritise criminal law responses, to more liberal ones that focus primarily on reducing the health and social harms resulting from drug use. In 2021, Malta became the first Member State to legalise recreational cannabis, and since then several others have taken steps that could potentially lead to similar drug policy reforms.

Brussels: European Union, 2023. 12p.

By Bradley Ray, Steven J. Korzeniewski, George Mohler, Jennifer J. Carroll, et al.

Objectives. To test the hypothesis that law enforcement efforts to disrupt local drug markets by seizing opioids or stimulants are associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering of overdose events in the surrounding geographic area. Methods. We performed a retrospective (January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021), population-based cohort study using administrative data from Marion County, Indiana. We compared frequency and characteristics of drug (i.e., opioids and stimulants) seizures with changes in fatal overdose, emergency medical services nonfatal overdose calls for service, and naloxone administration in the geographic area and time following the seizures. Results. Within 7, 14, and 21 days, opioid-related law enforcement drug seizures were significantly associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering of overdoses within radii of 100, 250, and 500 meters. For example, the observed number of fatal overdoses was two-fold higher than expected under the null distribution within 7 days and 500 meters following opioid-related seizures. To a lesser extent, stimulant-related drug seizures were associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering overdose. Conclusions. Supply-side enforcement interventions and drug policies should be further explored to determine whether they exacerbate an ongoing overdose epidemic and negatively affect the nation’s life expectancy.

Am J Public Health. 2023;113(7):750–758