NCJ Number
154170
Journal
Daedalus Volume: 121 Issue: 3 Dated: (1992) Pages: 133-160
Date Published
1992
Length
28 pages
Annotation
Just we now understand Tourette's syndrome to be a physical disorder rather than a moral disease, we need to reverse our thinking regarding drugs from a perspective centered on moral failure to a broader and more complex approach that highlights public health and underlying social issues.
Abstract
Such a shift would acknowledge the failure of the current national drug policy, which emphasizes the expansion of law enforcement and prisons. The two facets of the drug problems are drug abuse and addiction and the crime and violence connected to illegal drug use and sale. The administration's approach to expand law enforcement in an unprecedented way has had little impact on either of these problems, except to worsen street violence. It ignores the reasons people use and sell illegal drugs, underestimates problems of drug law enforcement, overlooks the social and economic bases of drug marketing and use, and is oblivious to the implications of a war on drugs for the Nation's character. Moral exhortation, an unprecedented expansion of law enforcement, or military intervention cannot and should not be used to address what is essentially a health and social problem. These responses are expensive and largely counterproductive. Reference notes