ID: HR19-410
Presenting author: Emile Dirks
Emile Dirks
Issue: Current research on drug use, drug-related crime and harm reduction initiatives in the People's Republic of China has been limited due to lack of aggregate national-level quantitative data. To fill this gap, researchers have relied on the annual reports of China's Public Security Bureau. However, these reports do not present historical trends nor do they place data in a broader context.
Project: This project is the first open source online database to collate all publicly available quantitative data on drug use, drug-related crime and harm reduction interventions in China. Data from 1990 to 2016 were collected from reports produced by the Chinese government, Chinese and English-language media organizations, Chinese and non-Chinese scholars and international advocacy organizations. Data were then run through Tableau and R to explore historical trends and statistical relationships. A bilingual English-Chinese version of the database will be made available on the website of the London School of Economic's International Drug Policy Unit, along with explanatory documents and copies of all sources used.
Results: Analysis of the data leads to three broad conclusions concerning drug use, drug-related crime and harm reduction initiatives in China: 1) arrests of people who use drugs (PWUD) continues to rise, despite a general decrease in overall crime rates; 2) PWUD arrested for drug use are overwhelmingly un(der)employed young men with limited formal education; and 3) while access to government-funded harm reduction continues to expand, so too has the number of PWUD held in compulsory drug detention centres.
Conclusion: This database provides a broader picture of the shape and impact of national drug policy in China over the past three decades. In the future, this database will allow researchers to compare trends China with other, more widely studied cases, including the United States.
(Dr. John Collins has expressed interest in chairing this presentation.)