The Metamorphosis of Prohibition: do global drug policy reforms represent progressive change?

• In Event: Global Perspectives on How the Law Works: Drug Policy and Wrongful Convictions

Abstract

It appears to be a time of turbulence within the global drug policy landscape. The historically dominant model of drug prohibition endures, yet a number of alternative models of legalisation, decriminalisation and regulation are emerging across the world. Whilst critics have asserted that prohibition and the ensuing ‘war on drugs’ lack both an evidence base and legitimacy, reformers are embracing these alternatives as indicators of progressive change. This paper contends, however, that such reforms may represent little more than the ‘metamorphosis of prohibition’, whereby the structure of drug policy changes, yet the underpinning principles remain the same. Consequentially, these reforms should not automatically be considered ‘progressive’ as they risk further consolidating the underlying inconsistencies and contradictions that have formed the basis of drug prohibition. In discussing such issues the paper leads us towards a questioning of where the critical criminologist fits into current developments which leads us to a revisiting of notions of idealism v. realism and abolition v. reform.

Author

• Stuart Taylor, Liverpool John Moores University, UK