NCJ Number
129245
Editor(s)
D Boaz
Date Published
1990
Length
148 pages
Annotation
Legalization is offered as a solution to the "drug-problem problem" -- the crime, corruption, and AIDS caused not by the biochemical effects of drug use but by the attempt to fight drug use through the criminal justice system. Current drug policies have failed and will continue to fail in the war against drugs because they are fundamentally flawed.
Abstract
When comparing the advantages and disadvantages of legalization with those of current and planned policies, evidence suggests that it may well be the optimal strategy for tackling the drug problem. Decriminalization would take the profit out of drugs and greatly reduce the drug-related violence that is currently plaguing the streets. Legalization would not solve all of the drug problems in this country, but it would make the cities safer by taking violent drug dealers off the street, make drug use healthier by regulation, eliminate a major source of revenue of organized crime, and reduce corruption here and abroad.