Drug Policy

In Elliott Currie’s article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” (1993) he expresses drug policy in the United States, and provides evidence to support his beliefs on the matter. Currie (1993) says that the police can only do so much to stop the problem, and that the people must speak up for how they want the problem solved (p. 571). In the first few paragraphs, he states that punishment of drug users is not an effective way to end the drug problem. He goes on to say that we must instead rehabilitate drug users, and reintegrate them into society. In other countries, they take an approach not unlike this one, and as such have seen a considerable reduction in drug abuse. Currie (1993) elaborates on why the current system will not work, saying that there are simply too many drug abusers to punish every one of them (p. 572). It is not financially or logistically feasible. Statistics can prove that imprisonment of those who commit drug-related crimes is sometimes more expensive than the damages that are caused. Currie (1993) also states that many of those who abuse drugs tend to go back to …show more content…
Criminalization of drugs results in crime because drug users and dealers must commit crimes to get drugs, and because of the increased price, to afford them as well. Decriminalization would decrease the need to commit crimes to afford their drugs, but there would be a risk of more drug use, which has been linked to high crime rates (Currie, 1993, pgs. 555, 557). Currie (1993) says that legalization with lower crime rates, but there would be more drug users (p. 579). Currie (1993) also discusses the complicated nature of the link between crime and drug use (p. 577). Some studies imply correlation, others imply causation. Other research shows there are different kinds of links between crime and drugs. This research further complicates the matter, but it is sure that drugs and crime do go together (Currie 1993,