Has United States Drug Policy Failed? And How Could We Know?

Abstract

Discussions of drug policy tend not to consider whether the stated goals of policies are an accurate statement of what they are meant to do and also may not consider the fact that what benefits some people may harm others. We explore these issues and present an agenda for research in this area that, while not eliminating these difficulties, both illuminates them and can help guide actors toward more effective action.

Keywords :

• policy research
• drug policy
• harm reduction
• conflicting interests
• vocabularies of motives
• drug user
• people who use drugs