Rethinking Our War on Drugs: Candid Talk about Controversial Issues

by Gary L. Fisher

Overview

The National Drug Control Policy has failed its two major functions (supply reduction and demand reduction) due to faulty assumptions regarding nearly every aspect of the alcohol and drug fields, charges author Fisher. Yet in spite of overwhelming evidence of this failure policy makers have strongly resisted discussing major changes to the assumptions that underly current policy, because of political pressure, bias and philosophical intransigence, he adds. Fisher discusses controversial topics and defends uncommon approaches in chapters focused on subjects including legalization, harm reduction, the futility of supply reduction, the problem of underage drinking and effectiveness of treatment and prevention. He proposes a new national policy for drug control, including elimination of the war metaphor, inclusion of alcohol in the mandate, conceptualization of addiction as a public health problem, utilization of harm reduction principles to guide policy and discontinuation of approaches that isolate drug and alcohol problems from their connection to broader social issues such as poverty.

In this work, the premises of the current National Drug Control Strategy are challenged, and both Democratic and Republican administrations across the last 10 years are critically examined. Statements of the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Strategy are critiqued. Major points include that there is no evidence the NDCS has achieved any of its goals, that harm reduction should be its guiding principle, and supply reduction should not be part of the national strategy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275990268
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/30/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Gary L. Fisher is Founder and was the first Director at the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies at the University of Nevada, Reno. A former Professor of Counseling and Educational Psychology, he is the author of a textbook on substance abuse counseling that is now in its third edition. Fisher's career has spanned 31 years and includes work as a private practice clinician and in public schools as a psychologist. The center he directed in Reno provides drug and alcohol counselors and prevention specialists with state-of-the-art training.

Table of Contents

Foreword by William L. White
Preface
One The War on Drugs: Is the Battle Plan Working?
Two The National Drug Control Strategy, 1996–2005
Three Legalization, Decriminalization, Harm Reduction
Four How Dangerous Is Marijuana?
Five Why Doesn't the NDCS Focus on Underage Drinking?
Six Does Prevention Work?
Seven Controversial Issues in Treatment
Eight Can the Supply Ever Be Stopped?
Nine A New Model for a National Drug Control Policy
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Offering a comprehensive presentation of relevant data, Fisher details past and current failures of the US's National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS). His most convincing and important contention is that the emphasis on reducing marijuana use among youth is misguided. Youth alcohol consumption, argues Fisher, causes far more harm than marijuana use, and alcohol is most often the gateway drug to other drugs and hence to drug problems. In a discussion that echoes criticism of big tobacco, the author exposes the alcohol industry's efforts to attract young drinkers to replace drinkers who are aging or dead, and he points to evidence that the NDCS—and the nation's laws regarding drug use, including alcohol—is heavily influenced by lobbying from alcohol interests. As a result, objective evidence that conflicts with alcohol interests is dismissed. This is a fascinating book….Essential. All readers; all levels.” —Choice

“He approaches his topic, the critical review of the National Drug Control Strategies, with an organized, well-developed case based on published data. Fisher dismantles the strategies implemented for the last decade in minute detail, and leaves the reader with a picture of a government throwing enormous amounts of money at drug control strategies that, at their best, are demonstrated to be only adequate or passable when outcome measures are applied….[a] quick and informative read for anyone interested in substance abuse and intervention strategies in the United States. The author's presentation of data points unerringly to the failure of the drug control strategies that we have invested in so heavily since 1996. A change is clearly called for, and Fisher makes a compelling case for such a change.” —PsycCRITIQUES

“In this accessible text Fisher critically examines the National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS) of the past ten years and observes that it has failed to reduce either the supply of drugs or the demand for them in the U.S. He then considers in turban a number of controversial issues such as the legalization of marijuana and the disease concept of addiction. He concludes by proposing a new model for an NDCS that is based on harm management.” —Reference & Research Book News

From the Publisher