NCJ Number
151486
Date Published
1993
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The Regional Drug Initiative (RDI) Task Force in Portland, Ore., opposes the legalization, the controlled legalization, and the decriminalization of illicit drugs for reasons that can be grouped into three areas: health, workplaces, and criminal justice.
Abstract
The use of drugs and their impact on health is of major concern, not only because of the harmful effects of drugs but also because of the long-term demands and costs to the health care systems. Worker safety and productivity issues dominate the list of concerns from employers. A policy of legalization runs counter to effective business efforts in drug control. The criminal justice system is also strongly affected by drug abuse. The RDI Task Force has concluded that drug legalization would not only displace society's costs from the criminal justice system to the health care system and the workplace, but would increase those costs extensively. A policy of legalization would be equivalent to exposing the population to a highly contagious and debilitating disease without effective cures. Finally, criminal sanctions do not cure drug abuse, but they serve as both a precipitating factor for entry into treatment and as a coercive power in maintaining people in treatment. Figures and 43 references