Santos Khanegi, Donia Lourdes;
(2023)
The nexus between recreational drug use and the negative societal impacts of the illicit drug trade: A comparison between the UK, Mexico, and Uruguay.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The illicit drug trade is associated with negative societal impacts, including violence and corruption. Existing attempts to minimise these impacts include increased law enforcement efforts on drug production, trade, and use. However, drug demand remains high and the illicit drug trade is thriving. The current thesis seeks to address these negative impacts through a novel and exploratory approach, by examining drug related behaviours which are posited to help alleviate the negative impacts (reducing drug use, sourcing drugs locally, and campaigning for drug policy reform). This research gathers data from people who use drugs recreationally (PWUD) in London, Mexico City, and Montevideo. Proximity to the negative impacts appears to influence awareness levels, as participants in Mexico City and Montevideo displayed higher awareness than those in London. However, a reluctance to change drug related behaviours was observed among all participants, indicating that awareness alone is not sufficient to change behaviours. Crime script analysis identifies cocaine purchasing and use in the UK as activities which enable the negative impacts of the drug trade to occur. Furthermore, opportunistic cocaine use presents a potential intervention point where drug use may be reduced. Consequently, the final study of this thesis investigates the factors involved in encouraging behaviour change among PWUD in the UK. Age, frequency of use, empathy level, and similarity between PWUD and drug trade victims were associated with willingness to change behaviours, more so than increased salience of the negative impacts through a video intervention. Optimistically, willingness to change drug related behaviours was mostly reported among the demographic forming the majority of PWUD globally. Recommendations for future research include replication of these methods in various conditions to strengthen these exploratory findings. In addition, this thesis provides support for the consideration of policy reform and regulated supply of recreational drugs. Informative campaigns targeting specific audiences of PWUD may be effective in changing drug related behaviours, which, if applied widely and long term, may help to alleviate the negative impacts of the drug trade.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The nexus between recreational drug use and the negative societal impacts of the illicit drug trade: A comparison between the UK, Mexico, and Uruguay |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Security and Crime Science |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10165233 |
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