Porter's Response To The Criminalization Of Drugs

As Rolles so accurately points out, "the criminalisation of drugs has historically been presented as an emergency response to an imminent threat, rather than an evidence based health or social policy intervention". What the criminal justice system fails to take into account is that by enforcing punitive drug policies the issue at hand is merely subdued. This high level policy environment routinely ignores critical scientific engagement and is uniquely divorced from most public health and social policy norms, such as interventions using established indicators of health and wellbeing. Porter reminds us that the notion of 'drugs' as we understand it today is a relatively new invention, therefore classifying drugs as 'illegal' and punishing those
who are caught with them tells us nothing about the drug itself, the only thing that is revealed to us is how the drug is regulated. This essay holds the view that the use of illegal drugs should be a matter of public health rather than the criminal justice system which simply implements an array of restrictive controls that fail to directly tackle the public health and social harms created by the illegal production and supply of drugs. This essay will start of by outlining the normalisation of recreational drug use thesis. The essay will then go on to discuss the fast growing drugs market and how regulatory drug policies are ineffective in combating drug related issues. Penultimately the essay will look at the extent to which drug policies target BME communities. The final part of this essay will explore the introduction of a public health model which aims to regulate illegal drug use in the most effective way. An overall conclusion on the issue will be reached.