Towards a harm‐reduction approach to enforcement

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the opportunities enforcement has to undertake activities to reduce harms caused by drug markets. Four pathways are open to the police in relation to drug harm‐reduction: reducing the amount of drug use; reducing the harm that drug users experience; reducing the harms that drug users impose on others; and reducing the harms caused by drug markets. It is the latter pathway that is the main focus of this article, which draws on a range of international examples. After highlighting that ‘not all dealers are equally destructive’ it is argued that one aim for enforcement could be to shape the drug market by making the most noxious forms of selling uncompetitive relative to less harmful practices.

Citation

Caulkins, J. and Reuter, P. (2009), "Towards a harm‐reduction approach to enforcement", Safer Communities, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 9-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/17578043200900003