Parental Substance Abuse and Foster Care: Evidence from Two Methamphetamine Supply Shocks

Foster care caseloads have almost doubled over the last two decades, but the cause of the growth is poorly understood. We study the role of parental methamphetamine (meth) use, which social workers have linked to recent growth in foster care admissions. To mitigate the impact of omitted variable bias, we take advantage of two significant, exogenous supply-side interventions in meth markets in 1995 and 1997, and find robust evidence that meth use has caused growth in foster care caseloads. Further, we identify the mechanisms by which increased meth use caused an increase in foster care caseloads. First, we find that treatment for meth abuse caused foster caseloads to fall in situations where a child was removed because of parental incarceration, suggesting that substance abuse treatment is a substitute for foster care services and more generally an effective demand-side intervention. Secondly, we find that parental meth use causes an increase in both child abuse and child neglect foster care cases. These results suggest that child welfare policies should be designed specifically for the children of meth-using parents.child welfare, illegal drugs, crime

The Impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on the Dynamics of the Opioid Epidemic

The forces driving the prescription opioid epidemic currently raging across the United States include aggressive marketing, weak regulation, addiction, freely prescribing doctors, a glut of pills available for sharing, and easy access to illicit drugs like heroin. This thesis aims to quantitatively analyze the interactions between these drivers through construction of a System Dynamics model, in order to determine the efficacy of policy intervention through Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. The System Dynamics model simulates the flow of doctors’ prescriptions to the two very different classes of prescription opioid patients. One class is the long-term pain patients whose tolerance and appetite for opioids grows over time, leading them to higher doses, often dangerously high, and yet also frequently to feeling under-medicated; the other is those patients prescribed opioids for short-term pain, who typically find that they have been given more pills than they need. These “extra” pills find their way into the hands of friends and family who, in common with the patients who received prescriptions, are in jeopardy of addiction to the opioids. Those addicted repeatedly visit doctors, shopping for more. Sensitivity analysis results reveal that drug diversion is a major contributor to the opioid death rate; that mandatory PDMP use will slow but not stop opioid proliferation, and will cause long term pain patients to be under-treated in larger numbers; that a significant number of people addicted to prescription opioids will transition to heroin use for reasons of price and availability; and that the rate of opioid overdose deaths will remain high until and unless society is better educated about the risks of addiction. Overall, the study helps conclude that the efforts of state governments and the FDA will be insufficient to stem the flow of opioids, and that there is no simple intervention to thwart drug diversion and sharing of pills

THE IMPACT OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN HIGH RISK, RURAL VIRGINIA COUNTIES

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between drug-related crimes in high-risk, rural Virginia counties (Brunswick County and Grayson County) and efforts to reduce them with a particular focus on a cost-benefit analysis of expenditures. Four independent variables were assessed in relation to drug-related crime: expenditures associated with (1) drug abuse prevention and (2) drug abuse treatment, (3) economic development, and (4) education. Drug abuse prevention and drug abuse treatment are traditional approaches to address the drug use and crime relationship, while economic development and education represent social determinants of health (economic and social factors that impact the health of people in communities). The literature suggests that strategies that build on traditional approaches to reduce substance use and addiction, while simultaneously addressing social determinants of health, are most effective at mitigating the drug use/crime relationship. The following demographic variables were also analyzed: unemployment rates, educational achievement, homeownership rates, median household income, and poverty rates. The theoretical framework used in this research was Paul Goldstein’s tripartite framework for explaining the drug use/violent crime relationship (psychopharmacological violence, economic compulsive violence, and systemic violence). Exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research designs were employed for examining the relationship between drug-related crimes and amelioration efforts in the areas of drug abuse prevention/treatment, economic development, and education. The research used a variety of secondary data amassed by local, state and federal governments, including basic demographic information, homeownership rates, median household income, poverty rates, and unemployment stastics. For example, audit documents from both Brunswick County and Grayson County, and the Virginia Tobacco and Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission (VTICRC) were utilized to determine expenditures for the dependent and independent variables. The data collected from the secondary sources were reviewed and analyzed. The researcher found that drug abuse prevention was inversely correlated with drug-related crime expenditures and drug-related crimes for juveniles. In other words, drug abuse prevention expenditures predicted reductions in drug-related crime expenditures and drug-related crimes for juveniles. The researcher recommends that policymakers reprioritize limited funding to ensure maximum impact of reducing drug-related crimes and its consequences through drug abuse prevention policies and increased funding allocations

The Exclusionary Rule and Judicial Integrity: An Empirical Study of Public Perceptions of the Exclusionary Rule

Fourth Amendment violations call upon courts to resolve the difficult question of who will benefit from past misconduct—the factually guilty defendant or the overreaching government. Either way, courts are forced to punish the misdeed of one actor and allow the other to profit from its misconduct, potentially undermining the public’s trust in the courts. The Supreme Court opined that suppressing unlawfully obtained evidence through the exclusionary rule deters police misconduct and better preserves judicial integrity. However, with the recent discrediting of the police deterrence rationale and the growing belief that the suppression of probative evidence instead undermines judicial integrity, the exclusionary rule faces an existential crisis. Whether the rule promotes or undermines judicial integrity, therefore, is key to its survival. Using a series of cross-national public opinion survey experiments, this article tests whether the exclusionary rule promotes or undermines judicial integrity in the United States and abroad. The article considers the application of the exclusionary rule in the context of various criminal and police misconduct as well as the application of alternative remedies such as administrative proceedings for police misconduct. In doing so, the article offers the first empirical evidence that the exclusionary rule promotes judicial integrity in the United States but undermines judicial integrity abroad. These findings suggest the judicial integrity rationale is the most promising, empirically-justified rationale for the exclusionary rule in the United States, but other rationales may be more effective elsewhere

Opioid and stimulant use among a sample of corrections-involved drug users : seeking an understanding of high-risk drug decisions within a system of constraint.

In the United States, high-risk drug use remains a significant social problem. Opioids and stimulants are two drug classes that have contributed to substantial recent increases in drug-related arrests, overdose, and mortality. Kentucky has been particularly devastated by high rates of opioid and stimulant use. Opioid and stimulant effects, while highly rewarding, can result in adverse consequences. Still, some people choose to use these drugs, and choose to continue using even after experiencing adverse consequences, such as incarceration. The aim of this study was to explore high-risk drug use among a sample of corrections-involved adults in Kentucky and to identify endogenous and exogenous factors with the potential to have influenced drug-related decision-making prior and subsequent to incarceration. Attention was paid to understanding concomitant opioid and stimulant use and heroin use. Survey data collected as part of an ongoing corrections-based substance use treatment program outcomes study were examined. The final sample (N=1,563) included adults released into Kentucky counties between 2012-2017. Non-parametric statistical tests and multinomial logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with opioid, stimulant, and concomitant use; binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with heroin use. Results indicate that opioid and stimulant use was endemic in this sample, though rates of use subsequent to incarceration were lower than pre-incarceration rates. During the 30-day period prior to incarceration, 29.0% of participants reported concomitant use, 28.5% reported opioid use, and 18.0% reported stimulant use. During the one-year post-release period, 11.9% of participants reported concomitant use, 12.5% reported opioid use, and 8.3% reported stimulant use. During this post-release period, 10.7% reported heroin use. Concomitant and heroin use positively correlated with many factors with the potential to adversely influence cognition and constrain choice. Similar relationships between many of these factors and outcomes involving other drug or no drug use were not observed. Behavioral economics, a molar view of choice and behavior, was used to conceptualize how factors in the lives of participants had the potential to influence and constrain decision-making in respect to high-risk drugs. Findings are discussed in light of how they may inform future research, policy, and practice

Countervailing Effects: What the FDA Would Have to Know to Evaluate Tobacco Regulations

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [P.L. 111-31] gives the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products, including placing restrictions on product composition, sale, and distribution. A complete accounting of the costs and benefits of any tobacco regulation includes harms from possible illicit trade in tobacco products (ITTP): costs of enforcement, violence, incarceration, etc. Indeed, the law instructs the FDA to take into account the “countervailing effects” of regulation on public health, “such as the creation of a significant demand for contraband or other tobacco products that do not meet the requirements.” While the law’s narrow focus on public health may limit the scope of an inquiry by the FDA compared to a full benefit-cost analysis, aspects of ITTP such as violence and incarceration have substantial health impacts. Illicit markets in drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, not to mention the grand experiment of alcohol Prohibition in the early 20th century, illustrate the substantial risks of unwanted side effects of drug prohibition. But taxes, product limitations, access restrictions, and narrowly defined product bans constitute “lesser prohibitions,” and are subject to the same kind (if not degree) of risks. All tobacco policy-making should therefore consider ITTP. This article sets forth a research agenda for the FDA to consider in order to estimate the effects of contemplated tobacco-product regulation and ITTP. We argue that, to carry out fully its legislative mandate, the FDA would have to determine the current size and impact of ITTP, analyze how these may be expected to change under new regulations, and look for interdependencies among tobacco-product markets that may complicate single-product regulation. A more challenging element of the research agenda would be to develop a better theoretical groundwork for the prediction of the emergence, size, and side effects of illicit markets

Security Analysis: A Critical Thinking Approach

Security Analysis: A Critical-Thinking Approach is for anyone desiring to learn techniques for generating the best answers to complex questions and best solutions to complex problems. It furnishes current and future analysts in national security, homeland security, law enforcement, and corporate security an alternative, comprehensive process for conducting both intelligence analysis and policy analysis. The target audience is upper-division undergraduate students and new graduate students, along with entry-level practitioner trainees. The book centers on a Security Analysis Critical-Thinking Framework that synthesizes critical-thinking and existing analytic techniques. Ample examples are provided to assist readers in comprehending the material. Newly created material includes techniques for analyzing beliefs and political cultures. The book also functions as an introduction to Foreign Policy and Security Studies.https://encompass.eku.edu/ekuopen/1005/thumbnail.jp