NCJ Number
113185
Journal
Public Interest Issue: 92 Dated: (Summer 1988) Pages: 3-65
Date Published
1988
Length
63 pages
Annotation
These three papers examine the advantages and disadvantages of legalizing drugs that are currently illicit, propose new approaches to enforcement to reduce the demand for illegal drugs, and critically analyze current efforts at supply interdiction.
Abstract
A discussion of legalization argues that current drug programs are costly and ineffective and that legalization would not lead to a dramatic rise in substance abuse. It notes that legalization scenarios range from virtually no government restraints to total government control over the production and sale of drugs. The second paper regards improved enforcement efforts as more realistic than legalization, which ignores the fact that heroin and cocaine are clearly dangerous drugs and that legal access for adults would make them available to youths, just as alcohol is now available. It argues that the greatest impact on drug use might be achieved by requiring urinalysis for people arrested of street crimes and to make the maintenance of a urine that is clean of cocaine, heroin, and PCP a requirement for all who are released on bail, placed on probation, or released on parole. The third paper notes that enforcement efforts have consumed most of the funding for efforts to address drugs and that efforts to interdict supplies have been and will continue to be ineffective. It concludes that putting more money into drug treatment and less money into supply interdiction would provide greater benefits to the United States population.