Innovation in healthcare management: drug decriminalization for reducing the health damage from crime

Abstract

The article focuses on the positive impact of drug legalization on reducing crime and violence's impact on health. The authors considered the potential of an innovative approach to crime prevention and health care improvement. Criminalization may reduce drug harm, but the current criminal-justice approach to drugs is not working enough. Drug use is still widespread, public. The personal harms are significantly large. There are a lot of short- and long-term health effects from crime and violence. The World Health Organization affirms that rates of drug use are unrelated to how effectively drug laws are enforced. Thus, it is actually to find new possibilities and develop new methods to reduce crime level and its negative influence. Drug decriminalization is one of such important issues. This article aims to investigate drug decriminalization for reducing the health damage from crime in the context of innovation in healthcare management. There is a comparative analysis of some drug legalization policies: decriminalization of the use and possession of all illicit drugs (with the control of their legal supply) or legalization of the use and supply of cannabis etc. The dynamic analysis of data for different types of crime, such as unlawful acts involving controlled drugs or precursors, intentional homicide, assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, and other violent crime both in two groups of countries – with criminal-justice and innovation health care (including drug decriminalization) approaches were taken. Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czechia are among the countries of the second group, which have decriminalized drug use and possession for personal use and have invested in harm reduction programs. The research consists of data for 25 European countries for 2008-2018 (the time limit of 2018 is determined by available statistics of the statistical service of the European Union, World Health Organization, UN Office on Drugs & Crime Databases, etc.). Based on the correlation and regression analysis, it is substantiated that drug decriminalization is an important factor in reducing the health damage from crime.