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Critics of the US drug war have urged the abandonment of the criminal approach & the substitution of controlled legalization in which substances like heroin, cocaine, & marijuana would be taxed & made available to adult users. While increased drug abuse & addiction would result, these social costs might be offset by the advantages of ending the violent, illicit drug traffic. How much crime would be eliminated by legalization is uncertain -- historical experience with narcotic, alcohol, & tobacco use & regulation suggests that the black market would persist in altered form under a system of controlled legalization. The extent of this continued illicit traffic would depend on which groups (eg, minors, prison inmates, pregnant women) were denied which drugs & the level(s) of federal, state, & local taxation. It is nevertheless possible to achieve a more balanced & rational drug policy that avoids both the dangers of controlled legalization & at least some of the concomitants of the drug war. It is argued that public health efforts, particularly in drug treatment, are the best hope for containing the harmful consequences of drug abuse. AA

The founder & executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance argues that prohibition has failed -- again. Instead of treating the demand for illegal drugs as a market, & addicts as patients, governments have boosted the profits of drug lords & fostered the narcostates that threaten us all. A smarter drug control regime would value harm reduction over criminalization, & reality over rhetoric. Adapted from the source document.

One thing that all parties in the American drug-policy debate agree upon is the desirability of eliminating the traffic in illicit drugs and the esurient criminal syndicates that control it. There are two divergent strategies for achieving this end. The first is the war on drugs. The second, which emerged in the late 1980s as a highly controversial alternative to the drug war, is controlled legalization. What follows is a historically informed critique of both approaches.

Contemporary drug taking and giving among the general populace are multi-level phenomena involving highly vicarious origins, needs and/or other supporting social, psychological or spiritual functions. Within this, a specific subgroup has emerged promoting a variety of (drug-based) religions, spiritual doctrines or ethical systems. Dividing such drug-based organizations into two categories of moral/ethical posture—the situational and the iconic/deterministic—a review of each catechism, ethical base and (when applicable) ritual practice is reviewed and annotated.

The activity of prescribing therapeutic drugs is one of the most significant features of the physician-patient relationship. This activity must be understood in moral, as well as technical terms. The ancient Greek word for drug had three meanings, providing the outline for an ethics of medication: remedy, poison and magical charm. Corresponding to these three meanings are three ethical principles: competence in therapeutic application, avoidance of harm and honesty.

The relationship between drugs and prostitution has been studied as part of a general investigation undertaken by the Inquiry into Prostitution established by the Victorian Government in September 1984. Prostitutes surveyed in Melbourne had similar alcohol consumption patterns to their age counterparts in the community but they were more likely to smoke tobacco and they smoked more each day. Overall, 87% of female and 65% of male prostitutes had used drugs other than alcohol and tobacco in the last year. They used over-the-counter medicines twice as frequently as the general population but most of this overrepresentation could be attributed to vitamin pills and tonics. Use of prescription medication was about the same as in the community. Although most prostitutes surveyed had tried marijuana only half had used it in the last year. Similarly, one-third of the interviewees had tried heroin but less than 40% of these users, or 15% of the sample, had used heroin in the last year. This use was greater among street workers than among other prostitutes. Marijuana use usually preceded prostitution but no definite time sequence for initiation into other drug use and prostitution could be established and there was no direct evidence for a causal link between narcotic abuse and prostitution. It is possible that the high frequency of illicit drug use among street prostitutes results from either a tendency for some young people to become associated with others engaging in generally deviant behaviour or through funnelling into a counter societal lifestyle encouraged by desire for money.

Research on drug use often fails to account for drug dealing in most analyses of violence and other systemic risks associated with illegal drugs. The current study examined whether drug dealing, independent of its connection to drug use, increases involvement with delinquent peers, violence, weapons, and other drug-related conflicts. Data were drawn from the first two waves of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study ( N = 1,148). Hierarchical linear models were used to investigate changes in these behaviors that resulted from the respondents' involvement in drug dealing and drug use. Results indicate that involvement in drug dealing, controlling for drug use, increases violence and other systemic risks to a level that drug use alone is not likely to achieve. Findings also show, however, that drug use among dealers may reduce violence and limit contact with delinquent peers.