America's Longest War [Kindle Edition]

Stephen Duke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2010

America's war on drugs. It makes headlines, tops political agendas and provokes powerful emotions. But is it really worth it? That's the question posed by Steven Duke and Albert Gross in this groundbreaking book. They argue that America's biggest victories in the war on drugs are the erosion of our constitutional rights, the waste of billions of dollars and an overwhelmed court system. After careful research and thought, they make a strong case for the legalization of drugs. It's a radical idea, but has its

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.

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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Product Details

• File Size: 681 KB
• Print Length: 312 pages
• Publisher: E-Reads, Ltd. (July 1, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003XRER38
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,515 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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