Drug Policy Modelling Program, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Drug Policy Modelling Program, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia; National Drug Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia; Behaviours and Health Risks Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Int J Drug Policy. 2018 Jun;56:197-207. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.03.005. Epub 2018 Apr 24.
Drug law enforcement subsumes the majority of drug policy expenditure across the globe. Fuelled by knowledge that much of this investment is ineffective or counter-productive there have been increasing calls for cross-national comparisons to identify where policing approaches differ and what types of approaches may be more effective. Yet, to date cross-national comparison of drug law enforcement has proven a methodologically hazardous affair. Using a new drug policing module added to the 2017 Global Drug Survey, this study seeks to provide the first cross-national comparison of the incidence, nature and intensity of illicit drug-related police encounters amongst people who use drugs.
The Global Drug Survey was administered in late 2016. Across 26 countries including Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, the UK and the USA a total of 45,942 people who had recently used drugs completed the drug policing module. Key variables assessed included the incidence and frequency of drug-related police encounters in the last 12 months that involved: a) being stopped and searched; b) encountering a drug detection dog; c) being given a caution or warning; d) being charged and arrested; and e) paying a bribe. Multi-level models were used to control for pre-existing national differences in drug use prevalence and non-drug specific policing (including the total number of police personnel in each country).
Drug-related police encounters were most commonly reported in Italy and Scotland. Conversely, police encounters were most likely to lead to arrest in Norway, Finland and Sweden. The type and locations of encounters further differed across countries, with for example stop and search most reported in Greece and Colombia, and encounters with drug detection dogs most reported in Scotland, Italy, UK and Australia. Multi-level models showed that the incidence of reported policing encounters continued to differ significantly across countries after controlling for pre-existing national differences in drug use prevalence and policing, and that drug policing encounters were 4 to 14 times more common in some nations than others.
The findings unearth significant cross-national differences in the incidence and nature of drug-related policing of people who use drugs. This suggests that there may be opportunities for countries to learn from each other about how and why they differ, and the potential benefits of switching to lower intensity modes of drug policing.
在全球范围内，禁毒执法涵盖了毒品政策支出的大部分。由于人们认识到，这种投资的大部分是无效或适得其反的，因此越来越多地呼吁进行跨国比较，以确定警察的方法有何不同，以及哪些类型的方法可能更有效。然而，迄今为止，禁毒执法的跨国比较已被证明是一项具有方法学风险的事情。本研究使用新增添至 2017 年全球毒品调查的毒品警务模块，旨在首次对吸毒者中与非法药物有关的警察遭遇的发生、性质和强度进行跨国比较。
全球毒品调查于 2016 年末进行。在包括澳大利亚、德国、意大利、墨西哥、瑞士、英国和美国在内的 26 个国家中，共有 45942 名最近使用过毒品的人完成了毒品警务模块。评估的关键变量包括在过去 12 个月中涉及的毒品相关警察遭遇的发生率和频率：a）被拦截和搜查；b）遇到毒品探测犬；c）被给予警告或警告；d）被指控和逮捕；e）支付贿赂。使用多层次模型来控制各国吸毒流行率和非毒品特定警务（包括每个国家的警察人数）的预先存在的差异。
在意大利和苏格兰，最常报告与毒品有关的警察遭遇。相反，在挪威、芬兰和瑞典，警察遭遇最有可能导致被捕。在国家之间，遭遇的类型和地点也存在差异，例如在希腊和哥伦比亚，拦截和搜查最为常见，而在苏格兰、意大利、英国和澳大利亚，最常见的是与毒品探测犬的遭遇。多层次模型显示，在控制各国吸毒流行率和警务预先存在的差异后，报告的警务遭遇发生率在国家之间仍存在显著差异，而且在某些国家，与毒品有关的警务遭遇比其他国家更为常见，频率为 4 至 14 倍。
这些发现揭示了吸毒者与毒品有关的警务发生率和性质方面存在重大的跨国差异。这表明，各国可能有机会相互学习彼此之间的差异，以及为什么会有差异，以及转向低强度毒品警务模式的潜在好处。
