NCJ Number
146611
Editor(s)
W O Walker III
Date Published
1992
Length
184 pages
Annotation
The essays presented here, all written from an historical perspective, reach two broad conclusions: that the drug problems that have afflicted the U.S. over the past decade were not unique and have historical precedent, and that drugs have rarely been a self-contained issue.
Abstract
The first essay examines the politics and policies of the five phases of the U.S. war on drugs, waged intermittently for most of the past century. The second piece examines, using a comparative and historical framework, the current arguments for the legalization of drugs. Two subsequent chapters compare and contrast the American drug control policies with the response in China during the first Opium War and steps taken by governments in East Asia during and after World War II. A separate chapter describes how nativism has contributed to narcotics control policy in the U.S.; basic assumptions that American's drug problems are largely foreign in origin have led to the current emphasis on law enforcement rather than other preventive efforts. The final contribution compares the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.