Research
You will find a complete range of our peer-reviewed monographs, multi-authored and edited works, including original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Chapter 6 addresses the most radical policy reform of this book: the case of Uruguay. The first part presents a brief historical background of Uruguay’s path to legalization. The second section focuses on the institutional architecture behind the country’s drug policy, paying particular attention to the changes established to implement and monitor the new legalized cannabis market created in December 2013. The last section evaluates the estimated impacts of the legalization of cannabis, exploring prevalence, drug seizures, price and potency, adverse health effects, violence, crime, and incarceration rates in Uruguay. To estimate variation if there had been no legal changes in the status of consumption and possession of cannabis, Brazil and Panama are incorporated as a control group in our comparison. The final section presents the conclusions and future challenges for Uruguay in the forthcoming years.
Chapter 5 analyzes the case of Portugal. Starting from the initial drug legislation passed in 1924 until the 2001 reform, this chapter explores the policy alternative of decriminalization. The second section presents the main features of decriminalization policy, paying special attention to the role of dissuasion commissions. The third section assesses the evolution of the patterns of drug consumption and other market-associated factors, together with relevant empirical information in the realms of health and security, including data on overdoses, infectious diseases, homicides, drug-related crimes, and incarceration rates. Statistical evidence from other European countries that did not undergo a major drug policy reform (that is, France and Germany) during the timeframe of the analysis is also evaluated in the final section. The conclusion presents an evaluation of the major strengths and weaknesses of the Portuguese decriminalization policy adopted in 2001.
Chapter 4 presents the first case study, Argentina, a country that adopted the subtler liberalization reform (that is, depenalization) analyzed in this book. The chapter begins with an evaluation of Argentina’s drug policy from the early twentieth century until the depenalization of illicit drugs in 2009. Since the criminal offense of possession of drugs is still typified in the penal code, the analysis of Argentina’s institutional architecture developed in the second section primarily revolves around the role of law enforcement and the judiciary power, actors that have implemented the depenalization scheme. The third section of this chapter evaluates the likely impacts of the reform on the country’s drug consumption patterns and associated harms. To pinpoint more accurately the effects of depenalization, this chapter contrasts Argentina’s indicators over time with trends witnessed in other Latin American countries, namely Brazil and Panama.
Coinciding with a wave of drug policy liberalization around the world, this book analyzes the experiences of Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay in their efforts at depenalization, decriminalization and legalization/regulation of recreational drugs. The authors present the successes and challenges of the approaches and their impacts on drug use, public health and security, debunking some of the myths surrounding flexible drug policies along the way.
Contrasting the three liberalization cases with the criminalization approach of the US at federal level, the book offers policy recommendations and lessons learned from the historical trajectories and policy reforms in addressing drug consumption and its associated harms.
Chapter 1 presents an integrative literature review of the scholarly literature and available empirical evidence from a variety of scientific studies and reports addressing the implications of different drug policy reforms around the world on consumption patterns. Specifically, the chapter focuses on how changes in the legal status of use and possession of small amounts of illicit drugs affect consumption use rates and market-associated factors such as price, availability, and purity. Since the existing scholarly literature has extensively revolved around the reduction or elimination of criminal sanctions, this first review assesses major empirical findings in that single direction. Each section includes a brief review of works analyzing principal contextual factors influencing drug use patterns.
Chapter 2 complements the literature review of this book by addressing key scholarly works exploring the implications of drug policy reform on health and crime. The first section of the empirical works reviewed focuses on adverse health consequences such as infectious diseases and overdose deaths. After reviewing studies dedicated to chronic and acute health problems related to the use of illicit drugs, Chapter 2 looks at scholarly works analyzing the various ways changes in the legal status of use and possession of small amounts of illicit drugs affect crime and, to a lesser extent, incarceration rates. Broader contextual factors are also briefly reviewed.
Chapter 3 introduces the drug policy of prohibition and criminalization in the US. Starting from the years prior to the sanctioning of the Harrison Act of 1914 until the end of the Obama administration (2009–2017), the first section explores the evolution of punitivism throughout different critical junctures. This chapter also reviews some of the international implications − in terms of both the multilateral framework and the foreign policy efforts − of the US anti-drug crusade overseas. The second section describes the main features of US drug policy today, paying special attention to the country’s normative and institutional architecture at the federal level. The chapter concludes with a brief evaluation of drug consumption patterns, market-associated factors, and health and security harms attributed to the use of various illegal psychoactive substances during the peak of criminalization.
Chapter 7 considers the role of beauty consumption for social bonding within the context of Botox parties. Beauty use and injecting practices are viewed as a means of conforming to the commodified gender norms and the central tenets of neoliberalism. The chapter examines how female participants used (counterfeit) beauty as a form of female bonding, while simultaneously policing and criticizing each other’s looks and behaviours in the competitive and comparative drive to look good. As such, this chapter illuminates a significantly under-researched area surrounding the environment of hyper-comparison, the impact it has upon beauty use and injecting practices, and positions harmful consumption practices as a means of hyper-conformity.
