Thinking Seriously About Alternatives to Drug Prohibition (From Drug Use and Drug Policy, P 269-316, 1997, Marilyn McShane, Frank P. Williams, III, eds. - See NCJ-168395)

• NCJ Number: 168410
• Author(s): E A Nadelmann
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 48 pages
• Sale Source: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

This article attempts to create and advance a more informed and sophisticated public discourse about alternatives to drug prohibition.

Abstract

The article reviews the various arguments for and against legalization of drugs and attempts to identify a middle-ground position that minimizes the threats and fears of legalization critics. Based on the concept of harm reduction, the article proposes a restricted distribution system that would balance interests between the extremes of prohibitionists and supermarket models. There are powerful reasons for taking seriously the alternatives to drug prohibition: (1) Prohibition has proven relatively ineffective, increasingly costly and highly counterproductive; (2) There are good reasons to believe that a nonprohibitionist regime would not result in dramatic increases in drug abuse; (3) There are also good reasons to anticipate that positive shifts in drug consumption patterns would accompany a move in the direction of nonprohibitionist controls; and (4) Those who value tolerance, privacy, individual freedom and individual responsibility have little choice but to seek alternatives to the current system. Notes