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12 Crim. Just. Pol'y Rev. 3 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/cjpr12 and id is 1 raw text is: Small-Denomination Paper Currency as the Focus of Supply-Reduction Drug Policy Thomas J. Bernard Pennsylvania State University Eric Hains Pennsylvania State University Efforts to impede the supply of illegal drugs and the laundering of illegal drug money have been expensive and largely ineffective. The authors propose that supply-reduction drug policy concentrate on impeding the reintroduction into the banking system of the large volumes of small-denomination paper currency (primarily $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills) generated in street-level drug sales. Such highly focused policy might better achieve the supply-reduction goals of the war on drugs advocates and the harm- reduction goals of drug legalization advocates. Government policies that respond to illegal drugs are often described either as supply reduction or demand reduction (Moore, 1983). Demand-reduction policies-prevention and treatment-are less controversial but also less important as measured by the proportion of governmental resources they consume. Supply-reduction policies dominate the government's efforts against illegal drugs, and those same policies generate considerable contro- versy. Critics argue that the supply-reduction policies of the current war on drugs generate more harm than the illegal drugs themselves and that these policies should be replaced by harm-reduction policies that include the legalization of at least some drugs. Other critics take less extreme positions, suggesting a range of alternatives such as targeted supply-reduction efforts (e.g., crack cocaine as opposed to marijuana) or de facto or partial legaliza- tion (e.g., marijuana as opposed to crack cocaine). Still others favor shifting resources from enforcement to treatment, arguing that treatment is less expensive and more effective (e.g., A Better Approach to Drug Offenders, 2000; Nieves, 2000). Despite this spectrum of alternatives, there is still Criminal Justice Policy Review, Volume 12, Number 1, March 2001 3-25 © 2001 Sage Publications, Inc.

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