Brice De Ruyver

The Impact of Drug Treatment Courts on Recovery: A Systematic Review

Introduction. Earlier reviews regarding the effectiveness of Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) reported a reduction in reoffending and substance use. Although substance users suffer from other difficulties than drug use and judicial issues, none of these reviews focused on outcomes or effects of DTCs on drug-related life domains, such as social relationships, employment, or health. Therefor, the present paper aims to review the impact of adult DTCs on substance use and drug-related life domains. Method. Primary studies were systematically searched in Web of Knowledge. Observational and controlled evaluation studies of adult DTCs were considered eligible if substance use and/or drug-related life domains were measured. Results. Moderately positive results were found with respect to within-program substance use. Few studies used drug-related life domains as an outcome measure and most of them yielded no effects. Employment and family relations ameliorated when specific interventions were used. Discussion. DTCs yield beneficial outcomes and effects regarding within-program substance use. However, evidence regarding the impact of DTCs on post-program drug and alcohol use and on other drug-related life domains is scarce. These life domains and thus QoL possibly can be improved by DTCs if specifically targeted. Future research is warranted.

Filling in the blanks. An estimation of illicit cannabis growers’ profits in Belgium

BACKGROUND As a result of increased pressure on cannabis cultivation in The Netherlands, the number of confiscated indoor cannabis plantations in Belgium is rising. Although increases are reported for all plantations sizes, half of the seized plantations contain less than 50 plants. In this study, factors and variables that influence costs and benefits of indoor cannabis cultivation are investigated as well as how these costs and benefits vary between different cannabis grower types. METHODS Real-situation data of four growers were used to perform financial analyses. Costs included fixed and variable material costs, as well as opportunity costs. Gross revenue per grow cycle was calculated based on most recent forensic findings for illicit Belgian cannabis plantations and was adjusted for the risk of getting caught. Finally, gross revenues and return on costs (ROC) were calculated over 1 year (4 cycles). FINDINGS Financial analysis shows that in all cases gross revenues as well as ROC are considerable, even after a single growth cycle. Highest profitability was found for large-scale (600 plants, ROC=6.8) and mid-scale plantations (150 plants, ROC=6.0). However, industrial plantations (23,000 plants, ROC=1.4) and micro-scale plantations (5 plants, ROC=2.8) are also highly remunerative. Shift of police focus away from micro-scale growers, least likely to be involved in criminal gangs, to large-scale and industrial scale plantations would influence costs as a result of changing risks of getting caught. However, sensitivity analysis shows that this does not significantly influence the conclusions on profitability of different types of indoor cannabis growers. CONCLUSION Seizure and confiscation of profits are important elements in the integral and integrated policy approach required for tackling illicit indoor cannabis plantations. The large return of costs evidenced in the present study, underpin the policy relevance of confiscating those illicit profits as part of enforcement.

Yield and turnover of illicit indoor cannabis (Cannabis spp.) plantations in Belgium.

In prosecution, Belgian judiciary currently uses outdated yield figures (28.1g per plant, sold at € 3/g at grower level) for fining illicit indoor cannabis plantations. Using state-of-the-art cultivation techniques, our growth experiments showed that yield is better expressed in g/m(2) cultivated surface area rather than in g per plant, and that yield varies significantly between different cannabis strains. It was found that the lower-bound of the one-sided 95% confidence interval of the yield of an indoor cannabis plantation can be set at 575 g/m(2). Prices and pricing mechanisms were investigated using interviews with respondents selected through snowball sampling. Results reveal that (i) the Belgian cannabis market chain is highly complex; (ii) unit prices are predominantly determined by transaction sizes; but also (iii) a set of product- and socially-related price-fixing mechanisms have an equally important role. At grower level, respondents reported prices for 1 g of dry cannabis buds to range € 3.00-4.25.

Criminal justice responses to drug offences: recidivism following the application of alternative sanctions in Belgium

Drug offences require adequate responses from the criminal justice system. In most Western European countries, including Belgium, the use of judicial alternative sanctions for drug users is on the increase. The objective of the current research was to examine the effects of judicial alternatives for drug users in Belgium. The design of this study comprises a pre and post measurement of the criminal activity, drug use and situation in different spheres of life of 565 drug-dependent offenders. Reduced offending was observed following the application of alternative sanctions. On average, the research subjects incurred fewer criminal charges and convictions after the judicial alternative than prior to it. In addition, their involvement in drug offences, property and violent crime decreased. This covaries with a remarkable reduction in problematic drug use and an improvement in other aspects of their life—including more supportive social relations and prosocial leisure time.

Cross-border crime in Belgium

ConclusionIn summary we can state that judicial assistance stands to lose further ground with respect to police cooperation. The Schengen Agreement authorized and legitimized the autonomy of the police which they themselves had already assumed in the legal assistance process. At national level the situation is worsened by the insufficient statutory regulation of the investigation prior to prosecution and by the absence of a well functioning judicial control thereof. Above all the research indicated that not all magistrates/prosecutors showed the same amount of interest in direct involvement in the international legal civil system, a disturbing conclusion in the light of the increasing internationalization of crime phenomena (De Ruyver, 1992).The manner in which the judicial assistance functions fails to deal with geographically determined and limited types of group crime, as in the study area. Crime organized in a businesslike manner and at the same time requiring greater expertise and cooperation with respect to the investigation prior to prosecution, remains a fortiori beyond concern.