Enforcement or Treatment? Modeling the Relative Efficacy of Alternatives for Controlling Cocaine

• NCJ Number: 177121
• Author(s): C P Rydell; J P Caulkins; S S Everingham
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 9 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Ford Foundation; Office of National Drug Control Policy; Rand Social Policy Dept
• Sale Source: Rand Corporation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper presents a model used to estimate the relative cost-effectiveness of four programs to control cocaine, including three programs focused on supply control and one program focused on demand control.

Abstract

The supply control programs included source country control through coca leaf eradication and seizures of coca base, paste, and powder in source countries; interdiction through cocaine and asset seizures; and domestic drug law enforcement through cocaine and asset seizures, arrests of drug dealers and their agents, and imprisonment of convicted drug dealers and their agents. The demand control program consisted of outpatient and residential drug treatment programs for heavy drug users. The model incorporated the market for cocaine, the demand curve, and the supply curve. Effects of different interventions were examined over a 15-year time horizon. Results revealed that drug treatment is by far the most cost-effective intervention; sensitivity analyses revealed that this result is very robust. Tables, figures, and 20 references (Author abstract modified)