Mark Haden: New report on drug law enforcement and violence

Dear Colleagues:

We are writing to you today to inform you about a new report from the Urban Health Research Initiative, a program of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which systematically reviewed all available English-language scientific literature on the impacts of drug law enforcement on drug market violence.

The systematic review entitled Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Review identified 15 international studies examining the impact of drug law enforcement on violence. Contrary to the prevailing belief that drug law enforcement reduces violence, 87% of the studies (13 studies) observed that drug law enforcement was associated with increasing levels of drug market violence.

The review concludes that the available scientific evidence suggests that drug law enforcement efforts will not meaningfully reduce drug supply or drug-related violence and may paradoxically increase violence in Canadian communities.

The full report and a brief summary are available on the UHRI website. Click the links below to download.

Brief Summary

Full Report

This report was featured in the following media articles:

National Post: Gang violence increases as law-enforcement steps up: study

Vancouver Sun: The war on drugs has become a war against us

The Province: War on drugs' backfiring badly: UBC report

Canwest News Service: Drug-crime crackdown may do more harm than good: B.C. researchers

Macleans.ca: More cops, more violence

We hope that you will consider forwarding this message to others who may be interested in this study.

Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions concerning the Urban Health Research Initiative and the work we do.

Best regards,