Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

medics at outpatient clinics for addicts and law enforcement officers who specialize in combating drug-related crimes).

The greater degree of organization in drug-related crimes is manifested by the growth of criminal groups and associations, in the setting up of syndicates and cartels, in the toughening of discipline within syndicates and cartels and in the rising cohesion of their members and the coordination of their actions. Tougher methods of pressure are exerted on members violating the rules of conduct within groups. Criminal groups, associations, syndicates, and cartels are also placed under control along with the people who commit drug related crimes on their own.

The expanding boundaries of illegal drug trafficking on the international scale are evident in the fact that drugs are smuggled into practically all the countries of the world. This smuggling includes attempts to carry drug consignments through the customs and across national borders of a number of countries by various means and by different kinds of transportation. This has been established by controlling deliveries of narcotics and by polling experts (law-enforcement and customs officers).

Law-enforcement agencies in various countries discovered the rise in the number of drug-making labs and new methods of selling and circulating drugs. Shops that were camouflaged as book or perfume stores have been seized.

Corruption – as a Way to Protect Drug Dealers:

Growing number of corrupt officials, aspiring for higher posts tend to improve methods to protect persons taking part in illegal drug trafficking. Polled experts and narcotic squad police officers, admitted that over the last few years, there was a rise in the number of requests to them by high ranking officials suggesting that criminal responsibility be lifted from persons involved in drug deals and against whom suits had been filed.

Ever more sophisticated methods to legalize the money from drug trafficking is manifested by laundering such money which makes it difficult, impossible at times, to trace its primary source. At present one can speak of the three major methods. First, cash is put into financial institutions or into retail trade and is immediately converted into foreign currencies or transferred abroad. Second, there is a stratification of the money, i.e. increasing the number of transactions that are often carried out in several countries to obscure the source of the illegally earned money. And, third, illegal earnings are integrated into investments in economic operations with the aim of making the money look legal.

The polled experts, and the narcotic police squad officers explained the increased latency of drug-related crimes by the following examples. There is mutual interest in keeping crimes a secret both among drug-pushers and addicts; none of them have any desire to cooperate with the law-enforcement agencies. There are special mutually beneficial and inter-dependent relations between users and suppliers of narcotics. This kind of relationship requires thorough secrecy due to the fear of criminal punishment for both users and suppliers. Small wonder that the addicts taken to hospitals, often in critical conditions, dangerous to their life and health, do not reveal, as a rule, the source of getting drugs. And this silence is due not to some sort of moral principles, honor, duty or solidarity but rather, in most cases, to the fear of losing the already established drug source or to the fear of being victimized for revealing the source. Also much is yet to be done to develop proper legal, personnel, tactical, material and technical programs that are effective in combating drug trade. There is the obvious need to find a way to expose latent drug-related crimes. For without realizing the actual state of affairs with drug-related crimes, adequate measures of combating them will remain insufficient.

Chapter II. System and Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse

Par. 1. System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is a socially dangerous and complicated phenomenon. Narco-crime, particularly, should be countered by a rigid system of measures.

These combine numerous and diversified steps having social, legal, criminological, economic, ecological, organizational and international aspects. The word system is understood as "a whole consisting of parts, a combination; ...a great number of elements bearing a relation to each other, connected with each other, forming a sort of integrity or unity.

The system of measures for overcoming drug abuse is comprised of many steps bearing relation to each other.

System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse:

The diversity of such measures, their relationships and contacts can be illustrated by law practices, law-making and law enforcement, as well as by the crime prevention theories both on domestic and international scales. For example, a comprehensive inter-disciplinary action program to prevent the spread of drug addiction submitted for discussion at the international antidrug conference in Vienna in July 1987 contained more than 400 articles and recommendations to governments and organizations as to how this negative phenomenon should be overcome.

The UN international program for combating drugs for the years 1994 and 1995, 1995 and 1996 comprises 298 projects featuring various aspects, directions and measures for checking the spread of drugs. 216 out of them were carried through in 1994 and 1995 and the implementation of the remaining 82 projects is underway. The total dollar amount of resources mobilized for the fulfillment of these projects is estimated at US$ 484,397,800. The sum was allocated by the UN International Antidrug Program's Fund.

The Concept of the Russian Federation government's policy on drug control, endorsed by decision No 5494 of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation on July 22nd 1993, incorporates quite a few antidrug measures from those developed by the world community and registered by international conventions and in other documents. This Concept emphasizes the measures that have been tested and are successfully utilized.

Since the system of measures against drug abuse is too complicated the discussion of its contents is related, firstly, to the general characterization of its components and, secondly, to the classification of these measures in their relation to each other.

Basic Aspects of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse:

The measures against drug abuse have some social, legal, criminological, medical, biological, political, economic, ecological, organizational and international aspects. Although these aspects have different spheres of application, they still remain interrelated. For example, measures for curing drug addicts have medical, social and legal aspects to them; measures for combating drug-related crimes have legal, criminological, social and other aspects; measures for combating money laundering have legal, social, economic, international and other aspects and so on. So, each particular aspect can be discussed only in abstract terms. This approach to the definition and description of aspects makes it possible to give a full characterization of the system of measures against drug abuse.

Social Dimension:

The social dimension is the cornerstone of all other aspects. All the antidrug measures are permeated with it. There is a correlation between the social aspect and each of the other aspects. It is either a general element in relation to something specific such as medical measures, or the whole of something, which represents a part such as criminological measures. It can also be a content when the other represents a form, as in legal measures. In short, the social aspect can be regarded as a common for all antidrug measures. Additionally there are legal measures for making those involved in drug-related crimes answerable for their actions and for intensifying the customs' control over the shipment of drugs across borders.

Legal Dimension:

The legal aspect of the measures under consideration can be seen as a totality of legal norms including international conventions against drugs and determining the degree of a judicial responsibility for them, mainly, criminal and administrative; secondly, regulating various legal relationships arising from drug use, thirdly, ensuring a compulsory treatment for drug addicts who try to avoid it and, fourthly, referring to these or other substances as narcotics.

Criminological Dimension:

The criminological aspect comprises measures aiming to overcome narco-crime, as a totality of drug-related crimes. These measures aim to study, analyze and sum up the structure and dynamics of these crimes and their latency. In addition, they aim to establish the causal complex of the given crime and determine the content, nature and direction of actions aimed at removing or neutralizing the causes conducive to the commitment of drug-related crimes. Thirdly, they aim to disclose and fix typical features, traits and qualities of an individual guilty of committing this or that crime. Lastly, they aim to develop methods for preventing drug-related crimes.

Medical Dimension:

The medical (biological) aspect involves the improvement of narcological aid and methods for curing drug addicts, the need to increase the level of professional medical training for those engaged in treating addicts and persons taking drugs without a doctor's prescription and the development of new medicines and medical equipment for treating addicts.

Political Dimension:

The political aspect