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Drugs

Drug Courts

Drug courts are specialized court docket programs that target criminal defendants, juveniles who have been convicted of a drug offense, and parents with pending child welfare cases who have alcohol and other drug dependency problems.

On this page, find links to articles, awards, events, publications, and multimedia related to drug courts.

Drugs and Crime

The National Institute of Justice sponsors research on alcohol and other drugs in the context of juvenile and criminal justice systems to promote effective law enforcement, court, and corrections responses to illegal drug markets and criminal behavior related to illicit drug use.

NIJ's drugs and crime research informs crime reduction through several approaches:

  • Epidemiology — to identify patterns between drugs, violence, and crime to...

Crime File: Drug Testing

January 1986

In this Crime File video, James Q. Wilson moderates a panel of three (Jay Carver, Director of the D.C. Pretrial Services Program; Elizabeth Symmonds, attorney with the Capitol Area Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Dr. Eric Wish, a drug researcher)

Crime File: Drug Trafficking

January 1986

In this Crime File video, James Q. Wilson moderates a panel of three (Mark Kleiman, Harvard University Research Fellow; Mark Moore, Harvard University Professor; and John Lawn, Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency), this team discusses Federal and local enforcement strategies against drug trafficking.

Crime File: Heroin

January 1984

1984

This video, in the Crime File series, portrays a panel discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of criminalizing heroin use, with particular attention to contrasting the British and American systems for controlling heroin use.

Crime File: Legalization of Drugs

January 1990

1990

This Crime File video presents overview of the nature and effects of some drug legalization in Holland; followed by an examination of arguments for and against drug legalization as presented by panelists Ethan Nadelmann, assistant professor at Princeton University, and Herbert Kleber, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Understanding the Opioid Crisis Case-by-Case: Overdose Fatality Reviews in Wisconsin

May 2019
Mallory O’Brien, Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin, discusses the Wisconsin’s Overdose Fatality Review process, a joint effort of the State Departments of Justice and Public Health, that brings together all of the stakeholders to share specific case information to understand the overdose, the events leading up to it, and what opportunities the can uncover for actions that can be taken to address the overall crisis.