Utilization of Supply-Side Policies in Reducing Heroin Use

1
Utilization of Supply-Side Policies in Reducing
Heroin Use

• The Australian and Canadian Experiences.
• By
• Bisola Atinmo

2
Background

• What is Heroin?
• Can be administered by smoking, sniffing/snorting
  and inejction
• 3.8 million (1.5) aged 12-54 have used heroin
• 560,000 (0.2) have used heroin in past year
• 338,000 (0.1) have used heroin in past month

3
Background (cont)

• Average age of first use for those between the
  ages of 12 to 49 years is 20.7
• In 1994, 548,000 Americans were addicted to
  Heroin.

• High social costs
• - Crime
• - Disease

4
The Australian Experience

• High amounts of heroin use in mid late 1990s
• Increased addiction, death, crime, and Hepatitis
  C infection.
• Unexpected shortage of heroin occurred in
  January, 2001
• Cause unknown Increased policing or reduced
  production in source countries?

5
Effects of Shortage

• In Sydney (largest market), heroin use decreased.
• Opoid related death reduced by 67 and Hepatitis
  C notifications fell
• Cocaine use increased
• No increase in number of other drug-related
  deaths.
• Decrease in rates of property crime
• Decrease in heroin supply acts like increased
  alcohol taxation. Reduces harm but not all
  affected by tax

6
Applicability to Amerian Policy

• Australian experience may be atypical because
• i.)  the heroin market in Australia is relatively
  small
• ii.) they are an island continent supplied a
  small number of highly centralized networks
• iii.) users have easy access to treatment

7
The Canadian Experience

• Overdose of illicit drugs is leading cause of
  death in Canadian cities
• 426 million spent in 1999/2000 to reduce supply
  of heroin
• In September 2001, 100kg of heroin seized in
  Vancouver by officials.

8
Effects of Seizure

• Vancouver Injection Drug User Study, 1996
• Found
• - No change in participants ability to
  purchase drug
• - No change in overall drug use pattern
• - No change in per-point price of cocaine
• Possible shortcoming of study is that only 75 of
  all participants were addicted to heroin.

9
Conclusion

• Possible that differences in both countries
  geographies and drug markets account for such
  opposite experiences.
• Possible that amount of heroin seized in
  Vancouver was inconsequential.
• Unable to draw a policy recommendation but
  Australias experience seem more logical.
• Learned has the same kind of elasticity as
  alcohol. Valuable information.

10
References

• 1. National Institute on Drug Abuse. 2008.
  National Clearinghouse on Alcohol and Drug
  Information.  www.nida.nih.gov. (accessed March
  9th, 2008)
• 2. News on Heroin, 2008. Narconon of Oklahoma,
  Inc. www.heroinaddiction.com. (accessed March 9,
  2008)
• 3. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2008. US
  Department of Justice. www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/.
  (accessed March 9th, 2008).4. Degenhardt, Day.
  Hall, and Bewley-Taylor, Dave R. 2007. The
  Australian Heroin Shortage Six years On What, If
  Any, are the Implications for Drug Policy? The
  Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme. July
  2007.
• 5. Wood, Evan. Tyndall, Spitall et al. 2003.
  Impact of supply-side policies for control of
  illicit drugs in the face of the AIDS and
  overdose epidemics investigation of a massive
  heroin seizure. Canadian Medical Association.
  January 2003.