마약 관련 형사정책의 법경제학적 함의: 마약억제정책의 범죄유발효과를 중심으로

This study analyzes and evaluates drug abuse problem which is becoming a social phenomenon, its relationship with crimes, how the so-called the discipline of ‘law and economics’ is being used on drug related criminal policies, and the precedent studies and foreign cases that focus on the impact of drug prohibition on crime in the perspective of the meta analysis. In other words, it reviews the economic incentives of drug abusers under the prohibition policies, and considers the effect of prohibition on crime with Friedman(1991) and Miron(1999)'s arguments as the central figure in an economic perspective. Not only that, it concentrates the light on the dilemmas of criminal policies which have resulted by the illegalization on drugs, and also reviews the alternative policy directions by giving examples of UK's price-discrimination policy and the experience of the Netherlands. Based on such analyses, the study put forward three suggestions as the following; First, the validity of the Korea's policy direction on drugs that can be classified into cutting off the supply, suppressing demands, and treatment and rehabilitation, needs further examination in a so-called the law and economics perspective. Second, the current policy logics, which takes the fact that drugs contribute to crimes as obvious, needs reconsideration in an economic viewpoint. Also, empirical studies on whether Korea needs to carry forward a (limited)decriminalization of drugs is needed.