The Search for Rational Drug Control (An Earl Warren Legal Institute Study) [Hardcover]

Franklin E. Zimring (Author), Gordon Hawkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052141668X | ISBN-13: 978-0521416689 | Publication Date: February 28, 1992 | Edition: First Edition

This book presents a comprehensive examination of the drug control policy process in the United States. How are policy choices identified, debated and selected? How are the consequences of governmental policy measured and evaluated? How, if at all, do we learn from our mistakes? Zimring and Hawkins present different ways of understanding American drug policy and provide a foundation for an improved policy process. They argue that protection of children and youth should shape policy toward illicit crime, with attention to the fact that youth protection objectives may limit the effectiveness of some drug controls.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume, as its title indicates, is a serious effort to point the way to moderation." Journal of Criminal Justice

"An important book on how to think about drug policy in the United States. Zimring and Hawkins challenge conventional thinking about drugs and demonstrate how understanding our past failures can guide us." Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Yale University

"Zimring and Hawkins put aside the false promises of our successive and futile `war on drugs', as well as the mischievous simplicities of an ill-defined `legalisation', and produce the first practical and achievable strategy to minimise the harm to individuals and to society from hard drugs and our criminogenic drug laws. Probing and practical, it is a joy to read." Norval Morris, University of Chicago

"So far as it goes, their program makes good sense. they would like to see more spent on helping pregnant women who use drugs and on intravenous drug users who have, or may develop, AIDS. And, rather than stigmatize addicts by imposing criminal penalties, they would like the government to pursue an 'open-door policy' in which hard-core users are encouraged to seek treatment. As for William Bennett, Zimring and Hawkins deplore his tendency to turn 'every public pronouncement into a rhetorical event.' With characteristic understatement, they suggest that Bennett's successor be a 'somewhat less gifted rhetorician.'" Michael Massing, New York Review of Books

"The authors (academics who have previously written fine books together on pornography, imprisonment and capital punishment) promote program budgeting for drug control....Their approach is rational, all right, and proffered with awesome historical and philosophical erudition. From the book's early chapters come valuable glimpses of the multiple prohibitions in American social history--state alcohol prohibition statutes in the 1850s, the criminalization of marijuana starting in the 1920s--and excerpts from commentators on this subject, from John Stuart Mill to Gore Vidal." Diana R. Gordon, The Nation

"This new book provides a thoughtful critique of the lacuna in federal drug policy formulation, as well as a host of other insights....this is a book that will engage and inform most readers. Perhaps it will also help prepare the nation for a more intellectually serious discussion of the proper stance to take on dependency-creating psychoactives." Peter Reuter, Health Affairs

"Zimring and Hawkins offer a devastating critique of the premises and tactics of U.S. antidrug policy...The critical aspects of this book are its strength and are required reading for scholars in this area." American Political Science Review

"This book provides a good, rational evaluation of the current drug policy in the United States. The authors logically and scientifically assess the current drug policy, concluding that it is based more on fear and unknowns than on any research or rational processes....Overall, the book is well-written. The chapters are well-organized and demonstrate excellent scholarship and research in the process of comprehensive policy evaluation. They proide good criteria for comparison, and break the drug problem into specific issues rather than one global issue. As its title suggests, this book would be seminal to anyone seriously interested in rational drug control." International Journal of Contemporary Sociology

Book Description

Providing a foundation for improved drug control policy in the U.S., this study argues that protection of children and youth should shape policy toward illicit crime. It also notes that youth protection objectives may limit the effectiveness of some drug controls.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 235 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; First Edition edition (February 28, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052141668X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521416689
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,810,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars well posed pro and con arguments, November 15, 2008

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This review is from: The Search for Rational Drug Control (An Earl Warren Legal Institute Study) (Hardcover)

How to reduce the usage of narcotics? Zimring and Hawkins take a sober and unemotional look at the history of anti-narcotics efforts throughout the world. Their book gives some perspective on what measures might be effective, and what might not be.

In one chapter, there is a look at prohibition measures throughout history. With especial details on the Prohibition of alcohol in the US during the 1920s and 30s. This led to widespread bootlegging and a massive growth in organised crime. All of which was ultimately driven by a large and persistent demand amongst the populace; that did not diminish with Prohibition. The chapter also looks at the anti-cannabis movement, that only started in the 20s.

A reader might read the discussion about the failure of Prohibition and see clear parallels with contemporary US narcotics policies.

However, the book does counterbalance. The authors are not (presumably) shaggy potheads. For the case of heroin, the book asks what if indeed heroin became legal and cheap? This might uncut the economics of much organised crime, and reduce the concomitant murders in the drug trade. And some advocate legalising, because that might actually reduce the usage rate. But suppose that more people now become addicted, due to its enhanced availability and affordibility. The lower productivity of heavy heroin addicts has been well documented. Here, the addictive power of heroin is strong enough that this argument against legalisation should give many pause.

Note however that this is specific to heroin, and other drugs of similar potency. For milder narcotics, like marijuana, that are less addictive, legalisation might have more validity.

The book is a well balanced treatment of both sides of the legalisation debate.

Interested readers might also consider a related text, that focuses just on the Marijuana debate: Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Contributions in Criminology and Penology).