NCJ Number
152530
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1994) Pages: 79-99
Date Published
1994
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This book review essay examines four publications on the outcomes and consequences of U.S. drug policy.
Abstract
Peter Kraska's "Altered States of Mind" explores the development, results, and future direction of U.S. drug policy, discussing aspects of the definitional process as well as some of the latent negative consequences of drug policy. The essays in "Drugs and Crime," edited by Richard Dembo, examine one of the alternative meanings of the drug problem: the drugs-crime connection. This book examines both the nature and extent of the problem and the utility of various programs designed to address it. The papers collected by Alfred W. McCoy and Alan A. Block in "War on Drugs" focus on the unintended consequences of the war on drugs as it has been conducted internationally; it provides an analysis of the failure of U.S. drug policy. The essays in Peter Smith's "Drug Policy in the Americas" explore the characteristics of, explanations for, and alternatives to the failed United States attempt to stop the flow of drugs from Latin America. Although each of the volumes has its weaknesses, taken together they provide a perspective on the ways in which social problems are defined, reproduced, and multiplied by social action. 14 references