NCJ Number
162169
Date Published
1974
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses how the drug-crime syndrome illustrates the essential features of the monopoly capitalist socioeconomic system.
Abstract
Fear of crime and alarm over drug abuse, particularly heroin, are major public concerns. Most discussions and debates on these interrelated issues are circumscribed by a narrow conceptual framework bounded by deterrence and punishment on one side and rehabilitation and social reform on the other. These approaches to addiction and lawbreaking share the perspective that such behavior constitutes a social problem which arises from a rejection of the normative order. An alternative approach is to consider that what are widely perceived as social problems may increasingly reveal themselves as expressions of deep-seated insoluble contradictions inherent in the existing social order. Without a fundamental restructuring of social relationships, addiction and crime cannot be eradicated, although temporary solutions may buy time for the system and its major beneficiaries. The paper includes sections on: Imperialist Policy and the Opium Trade; The Heroin Industry; The Street Crime Industry; Alienation and Narcotics; Domestic Politics and the Drug-Crime Syndrome; and Toward a Radical Program to Combat the Drug-Crime Syndrome. References