NCJ Number
136347
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 104-121
Date Published
1991
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The "National Drug Control Strategy" published by the Bush administration in September 1989 demonstrates the powerful role of ideology in drug policies in the United States.
Abstract
The proposed strategy emphasizes drug law enforcement and has chapters focusing on the criminal justice system, public awareness and community prevention campaigns, international policies, and efforts to interdict smuggled drugs. The report never precisely defines the nature of the drug problem, but appears to exclude alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs; considers all levels of drug use as equally threatening; regards all types of illegal drugs as equally pernicious; and characterizes drug abuse as a moral problem. The proposals reflect a legalistic perspective on drug abuse, rather than general public health or specific cost-benefit approaches. However, this perspective has the potential for increasingly authoritarian responses to social problems and lacks a clear relationship to the costs of drug abuse to the public health. Table and 1 reference