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United states drug

policy
Chapter 11
TWO BASIC MODELS FOR
RESPONDING TO THE USE OF
DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES
0 The Disease Model
1 Abuser is helpless and blameless
2 Defines substance abuse as a
disease to be prevented or treated
3 The Moral-Legal Model
4 Defines alcohol and other
psychoactive drugs as either legal or
illegal
5 Attempts to control availability
through penalties
THE MORAL LEGAL
MODEL-
3 methods
6 Regulation
7 Certain substances that may be
harmful to their consumers can be
sold with only minimal restrictions.
8 These substances are heavily
taxed, providing government with an
important source of revenue.
9 Alcoholic beverages and tobacco
products are subjected to
disproportionate taxation, and their
sale is restricted to people above a
certain age.
10 Special licenses are usually
required.
THE MORAL LEGAL
MODEL-
3 methods
11 Medical auspices
12 The use of certain potentially
harmful substances is permitted
under medical supervision.
13 The medical profession is given
control over legal access to specific
substances that have medical uses
because when the substances are
taken under the direction of a
physician, their value outweighs their
danger.
14 In this category are barbiturates,
amphetamines, and certain opiates.
THE MORAL LEGAL
MODEL-
3 methods
15 Criminalization
16 Statutory limitations make the
manufacture or possession of certain
dangerous substances a crime and
empower specific public officials to
enforce these statutes.
17 Certain other substances are
permitted under medical auspices,
but punishment is specified for
individuals who possess these
substances outside of accepted
medical practice.

Incongruities BETWEEN
FACT AND POLICY
18Of the most widely used psychoactive drugs,
heroin and cocaine are banned; barbiturates,
tranquilizers, and amphetamines are restricted;
and alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine products are
freely available.
19There is a difference between scientific
knowledge, the body of facts and theories
related to drug use, and political knowledge,
which concerns public attitudes toward drug
use.
20Our response to easily abused substances is
not based on the degree of danger inherent in
their use.
21That some drugs are outlawed with others are
legally and widely available is better
understood in terms other than those of science
or medicine, including different drug industries
and prejudice and racism.

SUPPLY REDUCTION
THROUGH CRIMINAL
SANCTIONS
In theory, in a free-market
22

economy, reducing the supply of a


product will drive up the price and
thus reduce demand and
consumption.
Thus, enforcement to reduce the
23

supply of drugs might simply


eliminate the less-organized
criminal distributors
24 resulting in an increase in the
profits of criminal organizations that
are strong enough and ruthless
enough to survive.

CONTROLLING DRUGS AT
THEIR SOURCE
The current U.S. policy of attempting to
25

control drugs at their source has had


unintended consequences:
26 displacement of production and human
rights violations
27The successful effort to force Turkey to
curtail its production of opium in the 1970s
resulted in a rise in opium production in
Mexico and Southeast Asia.
28Crackdowns in Colombia succeeded in
displacing the problem into other countries.
29There is one immutable rule in the drug
business: as long as demand remains
strong, successful efforts against it at the
source level will shift cultivation to a new
location.

CROP ERADICATION OR
SUBSTITUTION
Crop substitution programs have been
30

part of our effort to control drugs at their


source but have met with only limited
success.
31If all the coca the producing countries in
Latin America that have publicly
committed themselves to eradicate were
actually eradicated…it is likely that African,
Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian
countries would be able to cultivate enough
to meet consumer demands in coca
indefinitely.
The highly inventive marijuana
32

horticulturists of California, using new


hydroponic technology, has helped to make
marijuana the number one cash crop in the
U.S.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT
AND FOREIGN POLICY
33The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
requires the President to certify to
Congress that producer and
transshipment nations have
made adequate progress in
attacking drug production and
trafficking.
In 1990, of the 24 major drug-
34

producing and drug-transiting


countries only four – Afghanistan,
Myanmar, Iran, and Syria – were
denied certification.
THINKING POINT
35“But because no other crop came even
close to the value of poppies, we needed the
threat of eradication to force farmers to
accept less-lucrative alternatives.
(Eradication was an essential component of
successful anti-poppy efforts in Guatemala,
Southeast Asia and Pakistan.) But Karzai
had long opposed aerial eradication, saying it
would be misunderstood as some sort of
poison coming from the sky. He claimed to
fear that aerial eradication would result in an
uprising that would cause him to lose power.”

36 How can we effectively limit the production of


drugs when the countries they are grown in do not
cooperate?
37 Should U.S. policy emphasize stopping
production in other countries over reducing
demand in the U.S.?

DRUG REDUCTION
THROUGH TREATMENT
AND SUPERVISION
According to the U.S. Office of National
38

Drug Control Policy:


39 “Drug treatment. . .is demonstratively
effective in reducing crime. Law enforcement
helps ‘divert’ users into treatment and
makes the treatment system work more
efficiently by giving treatment providers
needed leverage over the clients they serve.
Treatment programs narrow the problem for
law enforcement by shrinking the market for
illegal drugs”
While the core of the U.S. response to
40

drug use has centered on enforcement,


expanding the availability of treatment
might be more productive for reducing
demand.
There is almost universal agreement that
41

without reduced demand, antidrug efforts


will remain ineffective.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA
42There is no consensus on the
effectiveness of marijuana as a
treatment for symptoms of pain,
nausea, vomiting and other problems
caused by illnesses or their treatment.
By 2011, 16 states and the District of
43

Columbia had laws permitting medical


use of marijuana.
There are an estimated 200,000
44

persons in California who use medical


marijuana.
THINKING POINT
45“The governors of Washington and Rhode
Island petitioned the US Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) to reclassify marijuana from the
most restrictive Schedule I category to a
Schedule II substance, which if approved, could
lead to pharmacies dispensing marijuana. The
106-page petition (900 KB), filed Nov. 30, 2011
by Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire of
Washington and independent Governor Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island, declares that the
Schedule I classification of cannabis is
‘fundamentally wrong and should be changed.’”
46 Should medical marijuana be legalized?

47 With numerous states allowing medical


marijuana why does the federal government
continue to treat marijuana as a Schedule I drug?

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