Consumer Reports Policy Conclusions: 1972

Licit and Illicit Drugs, Edward Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports; Little, Brown, and Co.1972

Go to http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cumenu.htm for an online, full text version of this book.

• I want a new drug? (prescription drug sales)(iDosing)
• Stop emphasizing measures designed to keep drugs away from people. Example: Prohibition.
• Guard against doing more harm than good. Often such measures only produce a tendency to switch to other drugs. Laws can't work miracles. (see also)
• Stop publicizing the "Drug Menace." Scare tactics don't work. (Current Ads)
• Stop increasing the damage done by drugs. Illegality==> impacts mode of use. Quality control issue (heroin in STL 2011)
• Stop misclassifying drugs. Examples: 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act (cocaine=> Narcotic). 1970 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act: Schedule I ==> Marijuana, LSD, (MDMA), Heroin. (see also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act and the DEA listing). Yet, 19 states and DC have medicinal marijuana legislation: Alaska | Arizona | California | Colorado | Connecticut (2012) | Delaware (05/2011) | Hawaii | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts (2012) | Michigan | Montana | Nevada | New Jersey (01/2010; governor signs 7/2011) | New Mexico | Oregon | Rhode Island | Vermont | Washington | and the the District of Columbia. Federal: illegal--Schedule I.
  • And, 3 states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes: Alaska | Colorado | Washington. (City of St. Louis moving to decriminalize?)
• Stop viewing drugs as a national problem to be solved on a national scale. What we have is a problem of community that needs to solved at the community level (international concerns) (Mexican Drug Wars, 2010). (maybe try "harm reduction")
• Stop pursuing the goal of stamping out illicit drug use. This tends to have the reverse effect of increasing use. (Significant rise in illicit use during the 1990s in spite of massive "social inoculation" efforts.)
• 2009--Change? (local copy)
• 2013: Maybe some real change

Talking About Drugs and Drug Use

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Last Updated: Thursday, January 31, 2013 8:17 AM