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Resource Library

This page provides an archive of resources highlighting the costs of the war on drugs over the past 50 years.

The archive can be searched by keyword, or filtered according to cost/sub-cost and region/country. To filter the searches use the drop-down menus and sub menus below.

You can also order search items by date or alphabetically.

As well as written reports and analysis you can find images, video and audio media (see icons next to resource items in the search output list below). Images can also be viewed from the galleries on the individual cost pages.

This collection will be expanded and updated over the coming year with support of project partners. The Count the Costs website is an evolving resource that will host examples of the devastating costs of the war on drugs. It is a work in progress which will develop over a number of years. At this stage it can be viewed as partially filled library shelves that you can help to fill with appropriate material (see here for more information).

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War on drugs hitting poor women hard: study

A news article summarising the findings of a report on the war on drugs in Thailand. The report finds that women are being disproportionately affected by the country's punitive drug laws.

Thailand, Gender, Discrimination

Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy

A report by the New York Academy of Medicine and the Drug policy Alliance which urges a shift away from a criminal justice-based approach to drugs and towards an approach centred around public health.

USA, Explore the Alternatives

High Tax States: Options for Gleaning Revenue from Legal Cannabis

A detailed academic paper exploring the various options for taxing the legal cannabis trade.

Economic

Transnational Organized Crime in West Africa: A Threat Assessment

A consideration of the growing issue of organized crime in West Africa, focuses largely on the flow of cocaine into the region and the resulting growth of organized crime.

Africa, Organised crime

Informal drug policy dialogue in South East Asia discusses opium cultivation and expanding ATS markets

Describes the problems faced by opium farmers, people who use drugs and policymakers, and how to improve existing responses in the rapidly changing political, economic and security contexts of Southeast Asia.

http://www.talkingdrugs.org/idpc/informal-drug-policy-dialogue-in-south-east-asia-discusses-opium-cultivation-and

Explore the Alternatives, China and South East Asia

Towards a Safer Drug Policy: Challenges and Opportunities arising from ‘legal highs’

An all-party parliamentary report discussing the emergence and use of new psychoactive drugs 'legal highs'. Considers the approaches used by other nations and benefits from the input of over thirty organisations.

Children and Young people, United Kingdom, Public Health, Criminalisation of drug users, Economic

Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Review

Article arguing that increases in law enforcement in relation to drugs causes an increase in violence.

Organised crime, Conflict, Enforcement spending, Street crime, USA, Security, Mexico

Portugal: Ten Years After Decriminalisation

A video looking at how Portugal's policy of decriminalisation works in practice, and whether it has been effective.

Cost / benefit analysis, Portugal, HIV / Hep C, Public Health, Discrimination, Economic

"Impossible" to end drug trade, says Calderón

Here the former Mexican president (outgoing at the time of article), Felipe Calderon, argues that the drug trade is impossible to end. He claims that the U.S. has a responsibility to the moral issue of the power and money that their drug consumption gives criminals in Mexico and focuses on this as the biggest part of the Mexican War on Drugs.

Organised crime, USA, Size of illegal trade

Dealing with the stigma of drugs: a guide for journalists

UKDPC provide a guide for journalists on how to discuss drug use without increasing stigma.

United Kingdom, Criminalisation of drug users, Discrimination