RAND paper comparing drug laws and use between the UK, US, Netherlands and Sweden

This short document is an Addendum to a paper RAND Europe provided for the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology in January 2006 on the evidence base for the classification of drugs.1 That report included information on legislation, punishment and treatment arrangements in the USA, the Netherlands and Sweden, as comparators for the UK. The Committee subsequently asked RAND Europe to provide a further, short summary of those international comparisons, to complement the information already set out in the main report.

This Addendum provides selected additional information about drug use, strategy, punishment and treatment regime and drug education in the UK. It provides selected additional information on the USA, the Netherlands and Sweden, to complement that already provided in the main report on drug education systems.

The information is not a comprehensive review of all the evidence available for the four countries; rather it provides an overview of the drug classification systems and the punishment and treatment regimes in place.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR362.1.pdf

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Interesting paper, thanks for posting

Very interesting read... thanks

Yeah interesting stuff, cheers for linkage JB

Very interesting article! Theres many things I found surprising about the overseas drug markets, though in particular, the fact that cannabis use is approximately twice as prevalent in the US compared to the Netherlands seemed like a great example of how regulating an illict substance wont result in a massive "addict" society (though in all fairness, the education to users about the dangers of drug use seemed far more effective in the Netherlands as well, compared to other countries attempts).

The large popularity of cocaine overseas was also something I found rather intriguing. Given that cocaine is, generally speaking, less common than say various amphetamines in this country, I was quite surprised to see that cocaine was even more popular than meth or ecstacy (or amphetamine, if that is also used in some countries over there), not to mention it was the cheapest per gram (in every country) out of all the drugs, even cheaper than a gram of cannabis! Atleast ... it is in one of the graphs, there is another that is specific for the UK which has different values, but im only going off "Table 1 Comparison of drug legislation policies and use: UK, USA, the Netherlands and Sweden".

Given the prevalence and cheapness of cocaine overseas, I think its only a matter of time before we see a similar "boom" in coke use here. Thats not to say there arent many people here who already use it, but I think that its more exclusive to certain groups (especially given the fact that, in general, its not a cheap drug here).

With the newly introduced saliva tests in many states which specifically catch cannabis or amphetamines, I believe many people will be looking for something that they can go out and have a fun time on then not have to worry about a positive on a saliva test 6 hours later when they are driving home. Cocaine could be that drug ...