Regulating European Drug Problems

Throughout Europe from town halls and regional governments, through national Parliaments and ministries, to the high institutions of the European Union there runs a vigorous debate on organized crime, municipal safety and private conduct. Drug problems and what to do about them so often sit at the intersection of these debates.;As for legal responses, throughout the 1990s the focus of attention has been primarily on the criminal law. New criminal offenses have been created, partly in response to influences from above (from international and European agreements) and partly in response to pressure from below (concerns of citizens at national and sub-national levels). But although criminal law certainly is important as far as the development of drug controls is concerned, it is by no means the whole story. There is a parallel history, a regulatory one, consisting of the increasing use of administrative measures, some of which are directly concerned with drugs whilst others are more general but equally applicable. These responses, together with civil law, variously function as adjuncts to criminal law, or as alternatives to it, in relation to drug trafficking at European and national levels, drug-related public nuisance as it concerns citizens at municipal level, and drug users.