Saturday, July 1, 2017

What's wrong with America's drug enforcement policies?

 From the Pacific Standard, , March/April, 2015 

 And for the past century, our policymakers have responded to the challenge of managing public drug use in a manner that is, alas, riddled with contradictions: We have enforced strict bans on some intoxicants (cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana) and allowed the legal sale of other addictive substances (nicotine, alcohol, caffeine). Some legal substances are quite dangerous to public health; some illegal ones appear safe by comparison. Along the way, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars enforcing anti-drug laws, and has imprisoned millions of people.

For more click here.

Editor's note: 
While health care providers are increasingly held to "evidence based practices" and/or "scientific based practices" unfortunately, politicians, policy makers, and the public are not held to the same standards. Is it time that they were?

1 comment:

  1. The Republicans have cut resources for mental health and substance abuse treatment both in their budget and in their health care bill. Ironically, the opiod epidemic and deaths is worse in red states than in blue. Some Republican legislators have stated that opiod overdose victims should not be helped but allowed to die as a way of cleansing society of their burden and saving money.

    Even though Trump campaigned on the issue, he has ignored it in policy proposals. He has reneged on his promises to his voters.

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