This Joint EMCDDA-Pompidou Group Report is part of the work conducted by the Expert Group on “Possible adverse effects and associated cost of drug control policies”. The final report will come out in December, following permanent correspondents’ consultations.
Mr Papamalis has served as a member of an expert group engaged by the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe for the project ‘Possible adverse effects and associated cost of drug control policies’. In 2015, Mr Papamalis had an individual contract with the Council in order to examine the current state of the art of the effects and associated costs of drug control policies to individuals. Subsequently, was also hired as scientific consultant by the Norwegian Ministry of Health to undertake written tasks in support of the work of the Expert Group. Among other things he contributed to (i) developing the tables of the unintended consequences of drug control policies, including Health, Social and economic functioning, Safety and public order and Criminal justice and (ii) writing the main chapter on the Unintended Consequences of drug control policies including scientific literature, fully referenced. Due to his scientific background and technical skills, he also signed a contract with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway, in 2016, to further support the work of the Expert Group where he successfully developed a comprehensive narrative report of the associated harms of drug control policies and on the evidence based harm reduction interventions. During his tenure, Mr Papamalis also examined the available EU databases on the drug control public expenditures, in order the propose strategies for estimating different components of drug-related public expenditure across the EU and to facilitate the transition towards an evidence based resource relocation.
Summary
Evaluating drug policy is an integral part of a cost-efficient approach to tackle illicit drugs. This report takes a first step towards a systematic analysis, by examining a set of representative attempts to estimate public expenditure on supply reduction interventions. It proposes a common set of definitions, aiming to establish a common basis for understanding this topic and facilitating comparability in three main dimensions: time, policy and countries. Although it is mainly confined to supply reduction expenditures, in order to set the context, it describes the proportion that total drug-related expenditure represents of national public spending and; presents the balance between demand and supply reduction spending for a number of European countries. Finally, with the aim of facilitating and promoting future empirical expenditure studies and of setting the ground for the development of good practices, relevant data sources and methodologies applied are listed and discussed and examples of sectorial models of public spending are selectively provided
Click to read the full report http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/joint-publications/pompidou-group/public-expenditure-on-supply-reduction-policies\
