A look at the failed "war on drugs" asks and answers such questions as why are we fighting this war? Is it winnable? Can we make America a drug-free society? Is drug prohibition the cause of crime? and other questions.
America's Longest War
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The first part of this worthy book by Yale law professor Duke and California lawyer Gross reiterates powerful evidence about the abuse of legal drugs like alcohol, the failure of attempts at prohibition and the links between illegal drugs and our current crime wave. Adding a new layer of argument, the authors detail the costs to our criminal justice system, in which, they maintain, due process is regularly ignored. Duke and Gross make an intriguing case that the cost to individual autonomy posed by the prohibition of drugs is too high and they point out that "almost any common activity produces abusers." Suggesting that reducing the drug supply is impossible and that eliminating demand through treatment and education, though a laudable goal, is equally impossible, the authors offer a sober assessment of the costs and benefits of legalization. Their proposal to legalize selected drugs, including cocaine and heroin, is based on an ultimate aim of "responsible use" akin to the country's policy toward alcohol. Only in the final page, however, do Duke and Gross acknowledge the importance of long-term solutions to the poverty and anomie that make the drug abuse problem in the cities so intractable.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Arguing that many of the social and economic costs popularly attributed to drug use are in fact consequences of drug criminalization, Duke and Gross urge a policy of regulated legalization as the best way to minimize the harm drugs cause. Some of this material is familiar, but Duke and Gross marshal statistics and clinical studies effectively, moving from studies of the effects of specific legal and illegal drugs through a review of the historical approaches to drug use and an examination of the cost of prohibiting drugs--in terms of crime, freedom, autonomy, constitutional rights, health, and safety--to an explanation of reasons why the drug war can't succeed ("A `drug-free' society is no more attainable than a `sex-free' society") and a discussion of different forms of legalization. The harm-minimization approach Duke and Gross support emphasizes prevention and education, easy access to treatment, research and use of therapeutic drugs, public health programs to reduce the death and disease, and--like Elliott Currie's Reckoning --recognition that, among the poorest Americans, drug use will remain commonplace until the nation addresses basic issues of poverty, employment, housing, and health care. A clear, heavily documented statement of the argument for declaring peace in the war against drugs. Mary Carroll
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
So far I rate this book 5 stars. I am also writing a book on this topic, and one of the most compelling reasons I have encountered for the decriminalization of substances is the situation in Iran. There dealers of Heroin have been subjected to the death penalty, and the traffic is unabated. As mentioned in this book and other sources, the harsher the penalties, the greater the profits. In every society there are persons so desperate and lacking in education and opportunities that death itself is no deterrent to such profit. In our (US) society recently a former chief of police in Los Angeles said that even casual users should be shot. He did not include cigarette smokers or beer drinkers. Fanatics are not often troubled by attacks of logic.
Abraham Lincoln said Prohibition laws run contrary to the principles upon which the United States was founded. He is one of George W. Bush's heroes. Dubya seems not to have read his hero.
Abraham Lincoln said Prohibition laws run contrary to the principles upon which the United States was founded. He is one of George W. Bush's heroes. Dubya seems not to have read his hero.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Read this book!! In it lies the truth behind the legal-illegal substance/drug story and thier relative harms. You will be surprised. Offered are models for legalization that only a brain-washed fool would argue with. Open the book, read, then open the debate! Well written. Bravo!!
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