War on Drugs Revisited: "Objective" and Socially Constructed Harm (From New War on Drugs: Symbolic Politics and Criminal Justice Policy, P 197-203, 1998, Eric L. Jensen and Jurg Gerber, eds. -- See NCJ-170568)

• NCJ Number: 170580
• Author(s): J Gerber; E L Jensen
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC.

Annotation

After reviewing critiques of the "war on drugs," this paper profiles alternative drug policies.

Abstract

Social constructionists, who analyze the dynamics and causes of the development of specific social policies, believe that a combination of political opportunism, media profit maximization, and a desire among criminal justice professionals to increase their spheres of influence has led to many misguided policies regarding drug abuse. Prisons and jails have become overcrowded as a result of the continually increasing use of incarceration as a sentence for even possession of illegal drugs. Minorities, particularly, have been disproportionately sent to prison as a result of the new war on drugs. State intervention in the "drug crisis" has been driven by images of heavy cocaine use, crack use in particular, as "typical" drug use. In reality, the most commonly used drug is marijuana, and most users are recreational users. One alternative to the war on drugs that has been promoted by a number of critics of the current policy is a harm-reduction policy. This is a pragmatic, public health approach that focuses on ways to reduce the harm caused by drug abuse without resorting to extensive criminal justice intervention. A second alternative to the war on drugs is derived from the emerging perspective of "left realist criminology." Left realists maintain that street crime is caused by inequities in the political and economic systems, that some offenders are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than others, but that the fear of crime in the inner cities must be taken seriously. The authors conclude that a long-term solution to the drug problem in North America is likely to involve multiple strategies and tactics. They advise that the "war" mentality must be abolished and a strategy of harm reduction pursued. This would include on-demand treatment programs. In the short run, resources must continue to be committed to the criminal justice system as a partial answer to public safety issues associated with illegal drugs. In the long run, however, resources must be targeted on effective ways of reducing medical harm to drug abusers caused by their drug abuse.