Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development

The article considers the market of narcotics as a part of the formal and informal economy. By narcotics, the author means psychoactive substances and plants containing them, which are banned, subject to control or non-prohibited, but have a psychophysical effect on human body. Drug-related psycho...

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Main Author: Aleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch 2018-03-01
Series:Экономика региона
Subjects:
Online Access:http://economyofregion.com/archive/2018/68/3024/pdf/
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author Aleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin
author_facet Aleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin
author_sort Aleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin
collection DOAJ
description The article considers the market of narcotics as a part of the formal and informal economy. By narcotics, the author means psychoactive substances and plants containing them, which are banned, subject to control or non-prohibited, but have a psychophysical effect on human body. Drug-related psychoactive substances are classified according to the prohibition criterion and restrictions on a turnover with reference to the illegal (criminal) or shadow economy. The author considers the illegal drug market as a latent self-organizing system of socio-economic relations of criminal and shadow nature. Such market is oriented towards the turnover of potentially illegal or dangerous psychoactive substances, which are prohibited or restricted for use in non-medical purposes. The analysis of the state and development of the drug situation on the territory of the entities of the Ural Federal District confirms the relevance of the problem of drug abuse. In recent years, the primary incidence of drug addiction and harmful drug use among the adolescents aged 15–17 have grown. Synthetic narcotics and psychotropic substances of high narcogenicity dominate in the current drug market. Over the past 5 years, the average cost of a single dose of drug remains virtually unchanged. This reflects the conditional balance of purchasing power and competition in the drug market. The disparity in the volume of seized cannabis drugs and the number of cannabinoid users observed by medical institutions suggests a high level of latency in this category of drug users. To assess the degree of negative impact of the drug market, the author proposes to use a method of calculating the socioeconomic costs of the consequences of drug addiction. The methodology is supplemented with tools for determining the number of psychoactive substances consumers on the basis of the mass of these substances withdrawn from illicit trafficking, using the concentration and recalculation coefficients. The author develops a methodology for assessing the economic effect from medical and social rehabilitation of drug-dependant persons. This methodology allows to economically substantiate the development of the national rehabilitation system and determine the economic costs to be reduced from its implementation. As a result of approbation of the methodologies, the author has determined the limiting coefficient of latency of persons, consuming psychoactive substances for non-medical purposes. Furthermore, these methodologies have allowed to define the share of the persons, who successfully completed medical and social rehabilitation. The excess of this share demostrates the positive economic effect of rehabilitation programs. The proposed methods can be applied in economic calculations to justify the establishment and functioning of drug addiction medical and social rehabilitation centres in the subjects of the Federation and to assess their performance.
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spelling doaj.art-0c12ed42fdbc4420b023f2a2bdc23b7c2023-09-02T12:55:38ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Economics of the Ural BranchЭкономика региона2072-64142411-14062018-03-0114125326910.17059/2018–1–20Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic DevelopmentAleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin0Prosecutor’s Office of the Sverdlovsk RegionThe article considers the market of narcotics as a part of the formal and informal economy. By narcotics, the author means psychoactive substances and plants containing them, which are banned, subject to control or non-prohibited, but have a psychophysical effect on human body. Drug-related psychoactive substances are classified according to the prohibition criterion and restrictions on a turnover with reference to the illegal (criminal) or shadow economy. The author considers the illegal drug market as a latent self-organizing system of socio-economic relations of criminal and shadow nature. Such market is oriented towards the turnover of potentially illegal or dangerous psychoactive substances, which are prohibited or restricted for use in non-medical purposes. The analysis of the state and development of the drug situation on the territory of the entities of the Ural Federal District confirms the relevance of the problem of drug abuse. In recent years, the primary incidence of drug addiction and harmful drug use among the adolescents aged 15–17 have grown. Synthetic narcotics and psychotropic substances of high narcogenicity dominate in the current drug market. Over the past 5 years, the average cost of a single dose of drug remains virtually unchanged. This reflects the conditional balance of purchasing power and competition in the drug market. The disparity in the volume of seized cannabis drugs and the number of cannabinoid users observed by medical institutions suggests a high level of latency in this category of drug users. To assess the degree of negative impact of the drug market, the author proposes to use a method of calculating the socioeconomic costs of the consequences of drug addiction. The methodology is supplemented with tools for determining the number of psychoactive substances consumers on the basis of the mass of these substances withdrawn from illicit trafficking, using the concentration and recalculation coefficients. The author develops a methodology for assessing the economic effect from medical and social rehabilitation of drug-dependant persons. This methodology allows to economically substantiate the development of the national rehabilitation system and determine the economic costs to be reduced from its implementation. As a result of approbation of the methodologies, the author has determined the limiting coefficient of latency of persons, consuming psychoactive substances for non-medical purposes. Furthermore, these methodologies have allowed to define the share of the persons, who successfully completed medical and social rehabilitation. The excess of this share demostrates the positive economic effect of rehabilitation programs. The proposed methods can be applied in economic calculations to justify the establishment and functioning of drug addiction medical and social rehabilitation centres in the subjects of the Federation and to assess their performance.http://economyofregion.com/archive/2018/68/3024/pdf/informal economyillegal economyshadow economydrug marketpsychoactive substancesdrug addictiondrug usersevaluation of the socio-economic costs of drug addictioneconomic effect from medical and social rehabilitation of drug-dependant persons
spellingShingle Aleksey Nikolaevich Klevakin
Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
Экономика региона
informal economy
illegal economy
shadow economy
drug market
psychoactive substances
drug addiction
drug users
evaluation of the socio-economic costs of drug addiction
economic effect from medical and social rehabilitation of drug-dependant persons
title Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
title_full Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
title_fullStr Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
title_short Assessment of the Impact of the Narcotics Market on the Regional Socio-Economic Development
title_sort assessment of the impact of the narcotics market on the regional socio economic development
topic informal economy
illegal economy
shadow economy
drug market
psychoactive substances
drug addiction
drug users
evaluation of the socio-economic costs of drug addiction
economic effect from medical and social rehabilitation of drug-dependant persons
url http://economyofregion.com/archive/2018/68/3024/pdf/
work_keys_str_mv AT alekseynikolaevichklevakin assessmentoftheimpactofthenarcoticsmarketontheregionalsocioeconomicdevelopment