The First Application of Leximetric Analysis on the Drug Law in Italy

Abstract

The leximetric is a quantitative analysis method that can be applied to any law, with the aim of evaluating the policy objectives of the study and its effects. It is also used to compare policies adopted in the same state over the years or in different states and the different impacts they have on social factors. In the present work, we apply this methodology for the first time to the laws on the sale and consumption of psychotropic substances to quantitatively assess the a priori level of repression that they express. The subjects of this study are the three different ‘anti-drug’ laws in force in Italy in the period 1991-2018. We first choose the variable that can express in the abstract the degree of severity of these laws, then we elaborate a neutral scale in which we explain how we assign every score (on a decimal or binary system) and lastly, we evaluate the laws using the variable chosen.

Keywords: Drug policy, Law enforcement indicators, Leximetric evaluation, Social-health indicators.

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