Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times, and PlacesThis book provides the first multidisciplinary and nonpartisan analysis of how the United States should decide on the legal status of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. It draws on data about the experiences of Western European nations with less punitive drug policies as well as new analyses of America's experience with legal cocaine and heroin a century ago, and of America's efforts to regulate gambling, prostitution, alcohol and cigarettes. It offers projections on the likely consequences of a number of different legalization regimes and shows that the choice about how to regulate drugs involves complicated tradeoffs among goals and conflict among social groups. The book presents a sophisticated discussion of how society should deal with the uncertainty about the consequences of legal change. Finally, it explains, in terms of individual attitudes toward risk, why it is so difficult to accomplish substantial reform of drug policy in America. |
Contents
OVERVIEW | 1 |
The Arguments | 3 |
The Evidence | 5 |
Assessing the Alternatives | 10 |
Drug Prohibition American Style | 15 |
DrugRelated Problems | 21 |
Enforcement | 24 |
Demand Side Programs | 32 |
Conclusions | 202 |
Learning from European Experiences | 205 |
Characterizing Drug Policy | 207 |
Analytic Framework | 210 |
Laws and Their Enforcement | 213 |
The Prevalence of Drug Use | 221 |
Italys Natural Experiment with Depenalization | 230 |
Conclusions | 236 |
Conclusion | 38 |
THE ARGUMENTS | 39 |
Elite Opinion | 42 |
Public Opinion | 48 |
Why Have Legalizers Had So Little Impact? | 50 |
Conclusion | 54 |
Philosophical Underpinnings | 55 |
Consequentially vs Deontological Arguments | 56 |
The Liberal Tradition | 58 |
Alternatives to Liberalism | 62 |
Implications | 71 |
How Does Prohibition Affect Drug Use? | 72 |
The Economics of Drug Demand | 76 |
The Fear of Legal Sanctions | 78 |
Informal Self and Social Controls | 86 |
Summary of Mechanisms | 92 |
Implications for Policy | 94 |
How Does Prohibition Affect Drug Harms? | 101 |
A Taxonomy of DrugRelated Harms | 102 |
The Implementation of Prohibition and Specific Harms | 112 |
Conclusions | 127 |
THE EVIDENCE | 128 |
Gambling | 129 |
Prostitution | 143 |
Other Substances Alcohol and Cigarettes | 156 |
Alcohol | 157 |
Cigarettes | 169 |
Conclusion | 181 |
US Experience with Legal Cocaine and Heroin | 183 |
Cocaine | 184 |
The Opiates | 196 |
Cannabis Policies in The Netherlands | 238 |
Characterizing Dutch Cannabis Policy | 239 |
Outcomes | 251 |
Interpreting the Dutch Experience and Other Analogies | 263 |
Harm Reduction in Europe | 265 |
The Netherlands | 272 |
Swiss Experimentation | 278 |
Heroin Maintenance | 286 |
Learning from Europe | 297 |
ASSESSING THE ALTERNATIVES | 300 |
The Spectrum of Regimes | 310 |
Total Harm and Its Components | 317 |
The Necessity of Value Judgments | 319 |
Summary Propositions | 325 |
Projecting the Consequences of Alternative Regimes | 328 |
Background | 341 |
The Basis for Continued Cannabis Prohibition | 356 |
Appendix | 366 |
Obstacles to Moving Beyond the Drug War | 370 |
Uncertainty and the Legalization Debate | 371 |
Politics | 374 |
The Strict Allegiance to Use Reduction | 384 |
How Firm Is the Resistance to Change? | 400 |
Can America Treat and Prevent Its Way out of Drug Problems? | 403 |
Drug Policy in Moderation and Some Nonzero Tolerance | 407 |
Bibliography | 409 |
| 455 | |
Author Index | 458 |
| 469 | |
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Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times, and Places Robert J. MacCoun,Peter Reuter No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
adult alcohol American Amsterdam argument arrests associated average harm behavior black market cannabis Chapter cigarettes cities cocaine cocaine and heroin cocaine or heroin coffeeshops consequences consequentialist consumption costs crime criminal justice decline decriminalization depenalization deterrence deterrence theory Drug Abuse drug control drug laws drug policy drug problem drug prohibition drug selling drug users Dutch effects estimates European evidence example experience federal Figure gambling hard-drug harm principle harm reduction Harrison Act heroin addicts heroin maintenance illegal illicit drugs increase involved less levels lottery MacCoun macro harm major marijuana ment methadone million moral National needle exchange Netherlands nonusers offenses opiates penalties percent political population prevalence problem gambling programs prohibitionists prostitution psychoactive drugs rates reduce reform regime regulation reported restrictions Reuter risk smoking social substance substantial suggests survey Sweden Swiss tion tobacco total harm treatment United violence York