NCJ Number
157821
Journal
Update on Law-Related Education Volume: 13 Dated: (Spring 1989) Pages: 3-57
Date Published
1989
Length
54 pages
Annotation
These articles examine the history of drug control efforts in the United States, the education of elementary school students regarding drugs and the law, constitutional issues involved in drug testing, arguments about drug legalization, and related issues.
Abstract
An overview of the history of legislative control of drugs in the United States concludes that alternatives to legalization appear to have reduced enormous opiate and cocaine consumption earlier in this century, although no single influence determines a particular level of drug use and abuse. Another article describes how the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering two drug testing cases; they involve different factual background and reasoning behind the testing programs. The distinction between drug impairment and drug use provides the critical distinction between the legal justification for and objection to the drug testing programs involved in these two cases. In another article, a proponents of legalization argue that current approaches are not and cannot work but are extremely costly and criminogenic. An opponent argues that although law enforcement and prosecution cannot eliminate drugs from the United States, control efforts are crucial. Another article explains how law-related education can help youth appreciate an ordered society, understand mainstream value systems, become aware of legal concepts, and recognize the legal processes that affect people's everyday lives. Photographs, exercises and guidelines for law-related education, and related materials