NCJ Number
136652
Journal
Yale Law and Policy Review Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 75-116
Date Published
1990
Length
42 pages
Annotation
This article examines the Bush Administration's drug control policy, "The War on Drugs," as proposed in 1989 and challenges its basic strategy which rests on the idea that each segment of the plan, that is, military intervention, interdiction, unprecedented enlargement of law enforcement, casual user sanctions, and treatment of addiction, will reinforce each other.
Abstract
Proposing an alternative strategy, the review offers some perspective on the issue of warring on drugs, examines the misguided premise of the nation's drug control strategy and the fundamental dilemmas and limitations of an "unprecedented" expansion of the criminal justice system and drug law enforcement, and defines the drug problem. Rather than a "criminal justice" challenge, the reclamation of neighborhoods is a social problem and public health challenge. A more promising national drug strategy would reflect a deeper understanding of the drug problem and its underlying causes, recognize and be responsive to the connection between social disadvantage and street selling, and use sanctions as a support to the social and economic initiatives rather than as the focal point of an anti-drug strategy. 130 footnotes