NCJ Number
83150
Date Published
1974
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Reflections on drug control legislation and enforcement concern the criteria for intervention, the objectives of repression, judicial issues, and actions beyond the frontiers of repression.
Abstract
Criminal law is rationalized in terms of the need to protect the social order. It also functions to protect individuals from oppressions by society and even from their own destructive behaviors and compulsions. The latter area especially raises serious questions about the extent of permissible official intervention into the private lives of individuals. While action against traffickers and users of hard drugs is easily justified on the above grounds, the issue is complicated regarding social use of other substances. Although moderate use of socially accepted intoxicants should not become legally sanctioned, alcohol abuse does precipitate grave social and personal dangers. Scientific controversy regarding cannabis use precludes legislative control until decisive proof of its destructive effects is produced. Marihuana control problems are similar to those of alcohol abuse; a limited tolerance may well be preferable to a law openly violated and unenforceable. Advocates of criminalization have two primary objectives -- general deterrence and individual rehabilitation. The former would require heavier penalties and intensified enforcement efforts. Judicial prescription of individualized treatment would require a highly flexible system of alternatives. Belgian law proposals and those of the 1961 New York convention on intoxicants could benefit from the following suggestions: distinguishing between occasional use and habitual abuse of alcohol and soft drugs; distinguishing between exploitative trafficking and drug peddling to sustain a personal habit; refraining from excessive penalties; giving special consideration to drug abusers who voluntarily submit to treatment; and permitting judicial discretion to use social defense measures, suspended sentences, and probation. Conditions for such sentences require establishment of ambulatory treatment centers. Presently, treatment alternatives are possible under French law. An international agreement providing uniform international justice authority over serious drug offenders is suggested as an extension of the New York convention. The role of the justice system in combatting drug abuse can only be partial; solutions to the problem lie with society at large.