The Search for Rational Drug Control

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the drug control policy process in the United States.

Franklin E. Zimring (Author), Gordon Hawkins (Author)

9780521416689, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 1992

238 pages, 1 b/w illus. 9 tables
23.7 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.435 kg

"This book provides a good, rational evaluation of the current drug policy in the United States. The authors logically and scientifically assess the current drug policy, concluding that it is based more on fear and unknowns than on any research or rational processes....Overall, the book is well-written. The chapters are well-organized and demonstrate excellent scholarship and research in the process of comprehensive policy evaluation. They proide good criteria for comparison, and break the drug problem into specific issues rather than one global issue. As its title suggests, this book would be seminal to anyone seriously interested in rational drug control." International Journal of Contemporary Sociology

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the drug control policy process in the United States. How are policy choices identified, debated and selected? How are the consequences of governmental policy measured and evaluated? How, if at all, do we learn from our mistakes. The first section deals with four different ways of understanding American drug policy: drug control as ideology, drugs as an issue of definition and measurement, an historical analysis of drug control, and finally, drug control as an occasion for debating the proper role of the criminal law. Zimring and Hawkins also discuss priority problems for drug control and provide a foundation for an improved policy process. They argue that protection of children and youth should shape policy toward illicit crime, with attention to the fact that youth protection objectives may limit the effectiveness of some drug controls.

Preface
Part I. The Drug Problem: Introduction
1. Ideology and policy - a look at the national drug control strategy
2. What is a drug? and other basic issues
3. Prohibitions and the lessons of history
4. The wrong question: critical notes on the decriminalization debate
Part II. The Drug Control Policy Process: Introduction
5. The universal proposition - children and drug control policy
6. Drug control policy and street crime
7. The federal role in a national drug strategy
8. Memorandum to a new drug czar
Appendix
References.

Subject Areas: Illness & addiction: social aspects [JFFH]