Political Strategies of Anti-Drug Management: The Case of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia

The article analyses the practices of motivating political decision making in modern anti-drug management. The authors point out that the drug use level in Russia is one of the actual indicators of political stability and effectiveness of the sociopolitical activity, an element of the political legitimating of power aimed at maintaining public order and security. The authors examine the specifics of the Russian anti-drug policy, the reasons for the strengthening of the public demand to the state for the development of policy measures for the prevention and control of drug abuse, with an emphasis on toughening the measures of responsibility for drug trafficking. The empirical analysis focuses on widespread anti-drug policy strategies for reducing drug use threats. The authors consider various types of the anti-drug policy: (1) repressive type with absolute intolerance and active state intervention in the drug situation, in which the most severe measures are applied, including the death penalty; (2) restrictive type against illicit drug market but without extreme measures; and (3.) liberal model aimed at harm reduction programs for drug users through the legalization of some drugs. Data show typical political strategies for responding to drug threats using in various countries: problematization of the situation, declaration of powerlessness, costs, disproving stories, and so on. The authors substantiate the ambivalence of the Russian anti-drug policy, which is due to the peculiarities of political actors’ perception of public anti-drug discourse. The article analyzes the Russian case of the anti-drug strategy selected by the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) of Russia, abolished in 2016. The main characteristics of the strategy were alarmism and perception of the real drug problem as a confrontation of values between the Russian society and the international illicit drug market. FSKN of Russia immediately took a power course in the implementation of the state anti-drug policy. Reduction of the state anti-drug policy to the power struggle against drug trafficking has led to the reorganization of FSKN of Russia into a traditional security force unable to significantly influence the level of drug use, which is an indicator of the stability and effectiveness of the sociopolitical order, a certain element of the political legitimization of power designed to maintain public order and security.

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