7.0 Introduction
Chapter Introduction
Prohibitionist-style drug policy is the dominant form of drug control policy within North America and globally. The best-known example of prohibitionist/criminalization policy is the War on Drugs. The aim of this policy is to eliminate or drastically reduce the illegal trade and use of psychoactive substances through police and military actions, criminal justice policies, and draconian sentencing, including mandatory minimum prison sentences. Despite increasing resource investment, the war has not achieved its goals. Rather than eliminating or reducing the trade in and use of psychoactive substances, paralleling the U.S. experience with alcohol prohibition in the early 1900s, the war on drugs has engendered an environment that fuels the growth of illegal markets, organized crime, violent injuries, and death of users, sellers, and police. The fifty-plus years of the war has also had lasting implications on perceptions and treatment of psychoactive substances, their trade, people who use substances (PWUS) and those individuals who develop substance use disorders (SUDs).
This chapter explores the failure of the war on drugs and how it has contributed to a growing array of social costs and consequences. Understanding the failed nature of the drug war and prohibitionist/criminalization policies more generally, is essential for engaging in a discussion about progressive policy change. As you will learn in future chapters, there is growing support for the use of public health and harm reduction approaches, that treat substance use and SUDs as health rather than criminal justice issues. There is also an increasing recognition of the social benefits of progressive policy options, including decriminalization and legalization.
Chapter Objectives/Learning Outcomes
After completing the chapter materials, you should have an understanding of:
- Drug prohibition, prohibitionist polices, and anti-drug messages – their functions and uses.
- Factors that help explain the continuation of failed prohibitionist policies.
- The costs and consequences of drug prohibition and the War on Drugs.
- Why alternative policies need to be implemented.
Questions to Think About When Completing Chapter Materials
- What are some of the costs and consequences of the war on drugs and drug prohibition/criminalization more generally?
- Given the evidence demonstrating the failure of drug prohibition policies, how can government inaction to move forward with evidence-based policy be explained?
- Think of examples of anti-drug and drug prohibitionist rhetoric and propaganda that you have seen in your own life. What evidence-based arguments can be made to counter them?
- Many people continue to believe that a tough-on-crime approach and prohibitionist policies are required to combat “the drug problem”. Using evidence from the course material from this and previous chapters, how would you explain that the opposite is in fact needed?
