NCJ Number
137155
Journal
Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Dated: special issue (1991) Pages: 625-887
Editor(s)
M C Loesch
Date Published
1991
Length
263 pages
Annotation
This symposium of two essays and nine articles focuses on the nature of the drug problem in the United States and how it should be addressed. The opening essay by William Bennett, the former Federal "drug czar," supports the current Federal policy of law enforcement, treatment, and prevention investments to deal with the drug crisis, but he advises that what is needed is a strong cultural model of a rejection of drug use through family, school, and adult positive community role models. The second essay describes the Substance Abuse Intervention Program of the New York City Department of Correction which integrates drug treatment with the jail regime based on effective screening of admissions. An article analyzes judicial rulings that illustrate how political and public reaction to the drug problem can infiltrate the legal process, thus raising the specter of an erosion of civil liberties. Another article addresses this issue by citing the inconsistency of protecting an expectant mother's rights to use alcohol and tobacco, despite known risks for her unborn child, while holding that the similar risks of illegal drug use are cause for her criminal prosecution. An article examines whether the Native American Church's use of peyote in religious rituals is distinguishable from the illegal use of marijuana. Two articles recommend a more objective consideration of drug legalization as an improvement on the current policy of using prohibition to counter drug abuse. The concluding article calls for the modification of Federal civil forfeiture legislation to ensure that forfeiture is not applied in disproportion to the severity of the behavior at issue. Essay and article footnotes