NCJ Number
154383
Date Published
1988
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper presents arguments for and against the legalization of drugs whose use and trafficking is currently criminalized.
Abstract
Concern and frustration over the continuing national drug problem have generated a revival of calls to eliminate some or all of the Federal and State restrictions on selected drugs subject to widespread abuse. Proponents of such a course may have widely differing strategies in arguing their cases, but they have in common the notion that the corrupting effects of the illicit drug industry are so threatening to society, in the United States and in the principal producing and transiting countries, that something must be done to take the profit out of drugs. Opponents of drug legalization generally argue that legalization would bring increased drug use, accompanied by a further erosion of the values upon which the Nation's stability rests. Although the term "legalization" is used in a number of ways, those who recommend it as a way of taking the profit out of drug trafficking are assumed to be thinking of an over-the-counter mode of distribution. Schemes for making such a drug as heroin legally available only to persons already addicted -- in controlled, perhaps government-operated maintenance programs -- compose a separate issue, which is not specifically addressed by the arguments in this report. 27 footnotes