Great Drug Policy Debate: What Means This Thing Called Decriminalization? (From Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society, P 1-23, 1993, Ronald Bayer and Gerald M. Oppenheimer, eds. - See NCJ-159507)

• NCJ Number: 159508
• Author(s): R Bayer
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Decriminalization, as an alternative to current drug law enforcement policy, represents a break with the use of criminal law as the primary social weapon against drug use, but beyond that there is little agreement among its proponents.

Abstract

Some advocates argue that decriminalization would end prosecutions for small-scale drug possession or sales, while others believe that decriminalization implies the need to medicalize the problem of drug abuse or to legalize all drugs and create a regulated market. This article traces the various phases of the post-World War II debate over decriminalization, and focuses on several components of the contemporary drug policy debate, namely harm reduction and the social costs associated both with drug use and related law enforcement efforts. 56 references