NCJ Number
136502
Journal
Hofstra Law Review Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1990) Pages: 457-942
Editor(s)
K B Johnson
Date Published
1990
Length
486 pages
Annotation
Ten articles argue the issues in a national policy for dealing with the "drug problem," with a focus on the pros and cons of drug decriminalization.
Abstract
Arguing in favor of drug legalization, the first article concludes that prohibition has not been effective in stopping drug abuse and drug addiction; it proposes a public health approach to prevention and treatment. A second article assesses legalization as it applies to alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Overall, the article advises that the monumental health problems that attend the use of licit drugs suggests that prohibition, on balance, protects public health better than a policy of legalization. Another article explores the potential consequences of cocaine legalization for adolescents and children, as it advocates the maintenance of criminal sanctions against cocaine trafficking, combined with renewed prevention and treatment efforts. An article presents a comprehensive argument for the legalization of consciousness-altering drugs, followed by an article that appeals for a continuation of comprehensive drug education and drug law enforcement. The history and consequences of Dutch drug policy, which includes the decriminalization of the use of "soft drugs," are traced in another article. Other articles consider a public health approach to the reduction in drug use, the failure of an intensified enforcement approach to drug trafficking and use in New York City, a bill to repeal criminal drug laws in New York State, the efforts of the International Anti-Prohibitionist League in the field of drugs, and a proposal for controlled decriminalization of selected drugs. Article footnotes