The Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970: Retrospective Assessments of Disparate Treatment and Consequential Impact

ABSTRACT

Although the basic paradigm of the U.S. federal drug policy targeting the supply and demand reduction has not changed since its enactment in 1970, there have been seriously undesirable disparate treatments and impacts among various population groups. Although U.S. Congress could not define what is discrimination, it did provide two major criteria for the assessment of discriminatory practices as follows: (a) disparate treatment—basing a key decision on association with any of the five prohibited individual’s demographic classifications (race, color, religion, sex, or national origin); and (b) disparate impact—correlation between any of the five prohibited demographic classifications and the key outcomes. In reference to those criteria, this article describes evidence-based indicators of national failure of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

KEYWORDS:

• U.S. federal drug policy
• disparate treatment
• racial discrimination
• disparate impact