The Result Of Prohibition

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When a substance is prohibited, demand is displaced into an illicit black market where quality control, dosage standards, and enforceable age barriers do not exist, making unregulated supply the dominant mode of distribution¹. In these conditions, products of uncertain potency and composition increase health risks while limiting the reach and effectiveness of harm-reduction education and public-health guidance, since criminalisation prioritises enforcement over health-based engagement². Enforcement responses then concentrate police, court, and prison resources on drug-related offences, expanding institutional workloads and diverting attention from serious crime prevention and public-health interventions, generating a sustained opportunity cost for public safety³. Criminalisation also produces stigma by framing use as a legal violation, which discourages individuals from seeking medical advice or treatment and weakens trust between affected communities and public institutions⁴. Because consumption and distribution occur underground, reliable data on prevalence, patterns of use, and associated harms remain incomplete, constraining surveillance, evaluation, and evidence-based policymaking⁵. Over time, these dynamics reinforce one another: unregulated markets elevate health risks, rising harms prompt intensified enforcement, and intensified enforcement deepens stigma, data gaps, and institutional strain, gradually transforming a potentially manageable public-health issue into a broader social and governance challenge⁶.


Sign the Petition for Cannabis Reform in Fiji: www.change.org/p/decriminalize-cannabis-in-fiji-for-our-health-wealth-and-justice


Footnotes


1. Reuter, P. (2014). The unintended consequences of drug prohibition. Daedalus, 143(3), 7–17.


2. World Health Organization. (2014). Guidelines on the public health response to substance use.


3. Global Commission on Drug Policy. (2018). Regulation: The responsible control of drugs.


4. Ahern, J., Stuber, J., & Galea, S. (2007). Stigma, discrimination and the health of illicit drug users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88(2–3), 188–196.


5. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2023). World Drug Report.


6. Room, R., Reuter, P., & Fischer, B. (2016). Drug policy and the limits of prohibition. International Journal of Drug Policy, 29, 1–7.

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