Robin Room; Angela Paglia
Drug and Alcohol Review, Volume 18, Issue 3 September 1999 , pages 305 - 315

Abstract
The core institutions and scope of the international drug control system are described. The system has grown in participation and particularly in scope and ambitions since it was studied in the early 1970s by Bruun and colleagues. Its premises are notably in conflict with the currently dominant ideologies of a free-market global economy although, as earlier, the United States plays a dominant role in the drug control system. At a time when it is seen as a failure in its primary aims both from inside and from outside, defenses of the system have ranged from rousing rhetorical appeals to efforts to "de-sensationalize" the issues.

Bernard E. Harcourt
University of Chicago - Law School

Jens Ludwig
Georgetown University - Public Policy Institute (GPPI); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Criminology and Public Policy, 2007
U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 317
U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 142

Abstract:
The pattern of misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City since the introduction of "broken windows" policing in 1994 is remarkable. By the year 2000, arrests on misdemeanor charges of smoking marijuana in public view (MPV) had reached 51,267 for the city, up 2,670 percent from 1,851 arrests in 1994. In 2000, misdemeanor MPV arrests accounted for 15 percent of all felony and misdemeanor arrests in New York City and 92 percent of total marijuana-related arrests in the State of New York. In addition, the pattern of arrests disproportionately targeted African-Americans and Hispanics. Read more »

Nadelmann, E. A.
NATIONAL REVIEW -BRISTOL CONNECTICUT THEN NEW YORK- 2004, VOL 56; PART 13, pages 28-32

Violence and the U.S. prohibitions of drugs and alcohol
JA Miron

Department of Economics, Boston University, 270 Bay State Rd., Boston, MA 02215, USA
Fax: (617) 353 4449
E-mail: jmiron@bu.edu

Abstract

This paper examines the relation between prohibitions and violence, using the historical behavior of the homicide rate in the United States. The results document that increases in enforcement of drug and alcohol prohibition have been associated with increases in the homicide rate, and auxiliary evidence suggests this positive correlation reflects a causal effect of prohibition enforcement on homicide. Controlling for other potential determinants of the homicide rate does not alter the conclusion that drug and alcohol prohibition have substantially raised the homicide rate in the U.S. over much of the past 100 years.