Caribbean Drugs

From Criminalization to Harm Reduction

Axel Klein, Marcus Day, Anthony Harriott, Axel Klein, Marcus Day, Anthony Harriott

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781848136229
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Caribbean poses a significant drugs problem for the UK and the US, as the recent phenomenon of yardie gangs in British cities graphically illustrates. But in the islands themselves ganja, crack cocaine and the policies to control them have become, as this book demonstrates, a veritable social disaster. The authors, who are among the leading local researchers and engaged professionals in the region as well as the former regional head of the UN Drugs Control Programme, bring together new research investigations, insightful policy analysis and practical experience of on-the-ground interventions putting demand reduction into practice. The dimensions of the illicit drugs market in the Caribbean are made clear. The origins of the problem lie in part, it is argued, with the impact of neoliberal economic policies that have opened up the region's borders and gravely undermined its traditional sources of employment and exports, like bananas and sugar. The islands, in part under external US pressure, have adopted a region-wide policy of criminalization This has involved the creation of specialized drug courts and serious human and social consequences as a result of criminalizing traditional cultural practices around ganja consumption. Fascinating light is thrown on the difficulties facing drug abuse and rehabilitation centres and the dilemmas they throw up. Harm reduction as a fundamentally alternative approach to the drugs problem is also explored. This is the first book to examine the experiences of Caribbean countries since they adopted a coordinated approach to the drugs problem. There are valuable lessons to be learned at both policy and practical levels for other countries, and in particular those like the UK and US with large Caribbean populations.

PART 1

Background and Context

Introduction

AXEL KLEIN, MARCUS DAY AND ANTHONY HARRIOTT

Few issues of public policy fall within the remit of as many different departments of government as drug control. Formulating a policy response involves, therefore, a process of consultation, negotiation and interdepartmental cooperation of bewildering complexity. Gathering the data on problems, causes and impact that comprise the evidence for such policy relies on the efforts of an array of sector-specific specialists and experts. In the English-speaking Caribbean the number of officials, policy makers and professionals working on different aspects of drug policy has increased steadily over the past ten years. The amount of data available from research and policy publications, unpublished reports and the media has grown correspondingly. Up to now analysis has focused upon the impact of drugs and sought to identify associated problems. Missing from the literature is an analysis of the extent to which the responses in policy and practice have themselves altered the underlying situation. There have been few attempts to evaluate the efficacy of discrete activities or overall policy approaches to drug use and drug distribution.

The importance of impact assessment, and of the inferences drawn from a wider analysis of the role played by drug control in society–state relations located in the social and economic development context, derives from the rationale of drug control itself. The prohibition of identified substances is based on a moral judgement about what constitutes acceptable human behaviour, and on a calculus of social efficacy. Governments pursue a chosen drug policy because they believe it is morally right, and they believe it is the best way for society to manage the evils and threats drug abuse visits on their society. Much drug policy is reactive to events, yet in order to safeguard the validity of programme delivery there must be a continuous absorption of new data and new factors into the policy formation equation. Policy makers, particularly, need to be conscious not only of the intended consequences of their drug policy but also, and maybe more far-reachingly, of the unintended consequences in so far as their entire magnitude can be grasped.

Moreover, while the agencies working at national, regional and international level wholeheartedly subscribe to the moral certitudes of prohibition, they must not shy away from vigorously engaging in evaluation, assessments and impact analysis to test the effectiveness and the efficiency of their policy. As the scale of interventions gathers momentum, there has to be a shift to looking at the aggregate impact in terms of crime, health care and social development. The contributions to this volume combine to form a constructive critique that spans the policy spectrum. Drawing on experience of programmes, policy and research, they include, as well as critical appraisals of the overall direction of drug policy in the Caribbean region, the evaluation of successful alternative practices.

The salience of drug control to the wider issue of social policy is brought out by Barry Chevannes. Political stability depends on adherence to the social contract, ‘yet the rule of law is never secure unless it is sanctioned by the moral order’. But in Jamaica ‘the state agencies classify ganja as a drug when the popular culture does not’. This discrepancy between popular practice and the law acts like a cancer in society–state relations. The sacralization of ganja by the Rastafarian movement has served as a symbol of cultural-political resistance to what the movement regarded as a repressive state. Understanding the failure to suppress ganja is an exercise in the pragmatism of politics and good governance, as ‘to harmonize the law with social morality is the better for the rule of law’.

The discrepancy between social morality and the letter of the law has disturbing consequences. Wendy Singh, having identified the tendency of the Commonwealth Caribbean countries to ‘arrest and charge those in possession of small quantities of drugs’, reports the inevitable consequence that the policy of drug control is ‘filling up the prisons’.

The high incarceration rates across the region forms part of a punitive tradition in social control inherited from a colonial past, which until well into the nineteenth century bore little resemblance to justice. Under the current drug control regime, drug offences have imposed an unsustainable burden not merely on prison populations, but also on the entire criminal justice system. Drug control is placing such a strain on the institutional infrastructure, as well as on social relations, that a range of alternative measures are gradually and at times informally being introduced.

One of the key modalities for easing the burden on the prison system while introducing an element of care into a system of punishment is illustrated in the drug court experiment discussed by Anthony Harriott and Marlyn Jones. An effective instrument for directing drug-using offenders to treatment, drug courts have been introduced into Jamaica and to a lesser extent into the Bahamas, while at the time of this writing Trinidad is poised to begin. Drug courts are resource-intensive and do not address some of the key problems surrounding drug offenders. For example, drug courts focus exclusively on drug offenders and neglect that high proportion of the offender population whose crimes are motivated by drug dependency. Drug courts also exclude offenders charged with trafficking or violent crimes; indeed, ‘the increase in violent crimes in Jamaica is in part due to drug trafficking and drug dealing, not the prevalence of a drug-using life style’.

Involvement in the underground economy of illicit drugs is a major source of livelihood for many of the Caribbean poor (if not some Caribbean nations). That this does not need to involve violence is shown in Axel Klein’s inside look at ganja farming in St Vincent. Eking out a living on marginal land, many ganja growers are former banana farmers displaced by the elimination of preferential entry into the European Union (EU) market. Klein makes an important point in deconstructing the myth that involvement in the drug economy leads to riches.

Philip Nanton shows how marijuana cultivation fits into the cyclical pattern that has characterized Caribbean cash crop economies from colonial times to the present. The region has been dominated by the export of a series of unprocessed agricultural products, each displaced in turn by cheaper producers employing economies of scale in other regions. The Caribbean dependency on prospects in the traditional export markets underlines both the ‘importance of the private sphere and the underlying peripheral nature of the state, both at the level of capital and among the poorest in the labour force’.

Both Nanton and Chevannes advocate the renegotiation of drug control policy with major extra-regional partners. Harriott and Jones and Klein also weigh in with arguments for substantial reconfiguration of the policy frame. Pending such macro-level discussions, health workers, educators, drug council administrators and other practitioners are forced to get on with the job.

Human and financial resource constraints, skill gaps, hostility from the public and suspicions among clients all adversely affect the discharge of professional duty. Yet ‘unhealthy competition fostered by personalization and attempted monopolization of the field’ adds additional challenges to an already complex situation, as Howard Gough reports in his chapter on the treatment and rehabilitation sector in Jamaica. With drug services still in a developmental phase, professionals have to establish working models and competencies while fending off claims by different constituencies, including the recovering addict as treatment specialist.

While residential centres can follow the experiences of regional and international alcohol and drug treatment services, the pioneers of Caribbean outreach work are pretty much left to their own devices. Marcus Day’s evocative account of the establishment of a low-threshold drop-in centre in St Lucia brings out the complexities of working on the fringes of both existing services and established theories of intervention. Yet engagement with these marginal groups generates fascinating information about the drug– crime nexus. The evidence discussed by Day makes it clear that much of the public nuisance surrounding problematic drug use and accompanying homelessness can be addressed and alleviated with the infusion of modest resources.

The crucial factor is the knowledge base, knowing when to deliver what intervention to which target group. But, as Jennifer Hillebrand argues in relation to new epidemiological data collection mechanisms, this generation of information entails new challenges that need to be addressed. ‘Despite these research activities, drug councils operate without any formal ethical oversight or research protocol that would define some of the core ethical principles that one needs to follow when collecting personal information about illegal behaviours’. She goes on to discuss the need to define ethical principles in determining the role of both researchers and councils, and their relationships with research participants.

Uncertainty about the participant group harbours the danger for the council of badly pitched and misdirected communication. There is a tendency to engage with school-based young people, not merely because of risk factors but because they are readily manageable within the school setting, making them an accessible audience. As long as intervention activities go unevaluated, they can be continued year after year, because it seems the right thing to do.

Yet there are opportunities to direct activity at the wider population by redefining respectively the remit of the drug council, the list of substances, and the definition of risk. Catherine Chestnut demonstrates how, even in the rigidly non-tolerant environment of the Cayman Islands, harm reduction strategies can be introduced in practice and earn much acclaim. ‘Public acceptance of the project was therefore seen as further proof of the progress made in terms of changing attitudes towards drug use and abuse. All indications so far suggest greater understanding and support for policies and programmes that aim to reduce harm, even in the absence of a clear mandate for abstinence.’

Alleviating the damage inflicted by drugs at the individual, local and community level has to remain a policy priority. It should involve government and civil society and concentrate on containing the damage and assisting those in need. But the illicit drug trade poses a range of threats that can only be dealt with at a societal level.

In their chapter, the UNODC authors review the trafficking trends in an attempt to assess the meaning of drugs to Caribbean economies. At the end of a difficult exercise, drawing out meaning from unreliable statistics, they can safely conclude that the biggest threat to the region stems from the distortion of the incentives and opportunity structure. ‘The most important consequence of illicit drug trade in the Caribbean comes from the disincentive to business entrepreneurship. Facing high returns on investment in the drug trade, the opportunity costs of legal entrepreneurship with more limited long-term returns are disadvantaged.’

Debate on the direction, impact and effectiveness of the current drug policy is likely to intensify over the next few years. Solutions will be urgently needed, and the chapters making up this book may be read as a contribution to that discussion. Evidence-based research focusing on the interpretation of existing drug control legislation, the efficacy of non-custodial sentencing for drug offenders, the need for alternative livelihoods, and the allocation of resources for reducing the problems facing vulnerable groups of drug users provide the materials needed to chart a drug control strategy that is contextually and culturally appropriate.

There is, however, a need to integrate these multiple programmes under an overarching set of principles. At present there is some tension between the agreed principle of abstinence from controlled substances and the growing number of open breaches. In terms of drug control policy it is becoming clear that one size does not fit all. Moreover, the principle of incarcerating drug (read marijuana) users is not endorsed by a significant section of the population across the region. To avoid a conflict of values, on the one hand, and on the other to develop a policy that is realistic and achievable, the region has to look at alternative policy frameworks.

Currently Caribbean drug control policy rests on two pillars. On one side is the emphasis on supply reduction activities. Partially funded by the consumer countries of the north, the goal of supply reduction is to interdict illicit drugs before they reach the borders of the donor countries. Her Majesty’s Navy and US Coast Guard vessels regularly patrol the waters of the Caribbean on interdiction exercises that are enhanced by the cooperation and participation of Caribbean marine police and coast guard services. The Caribbean vessels are decommissioned US Coast Guard vessels presented to the governments of the Caribbean by the US with operational costs (training, fuel, vessel maintenance, and salary subventions) also partially underwritten by them. The other pillar is a strong demand reduction programme focusing on both primary prevention strategies (directed at keeping young people from experimenting with drugs) and abstinence-based residential treatment in high-threshold centres. Much of this work is abstinence-oriented. There is little, as yet, in the way of service delivery for that percentage of the population that is engaged in drug-using behaviours. This begs the inclusion of a third pillar, the adoption of a harm reduction philosophy.

Harm reduction is a consequentialist approach based on acceptance that there will be a certain level of drug use in society regardless of what penalties are prescribed. It recognizes that there are limits to the capacity of societies to control the inflow of and the demand for drugs, and therefore aims to minimize the harm done to the drug users, their families, the community and society as a whole.

Harm reduction principles can usefully guide specific i...