Prevention: A law-enforcement point of view

Abstract

The kind and amount of drug abuse-prevention measures that can be applied in the United States is difficult to determine. This is because of the variances in each drug's intrinsic qualities and public perceptions about its good or harm as well as the cost effectiveness of any approach; particularly the social and political costs. Practically speaking, public sentiment is the single most influential factor. Consider the high level of public support for strong measures to repress some drugs but not others that may also be highly hazardous. The social costs of the degree of prevention that could be obtained by hard line law enforcement measures have to be weighed within the totality of American values. Although such law-enforcement efforts appear to have had a high payoff in other cultures, there is a question about how much of the same would be tolerable to the American people. One cannot dismiss the social and political implications of a particular prevention strategy or the tactics needed to implement it. Drug abuse, circa 1973, a subject itself undergoing change in the American mind, is not as clearcut an issue as the prevention of the usual communicable diseases or typical criminal activity involving clearly identifiable victims and offenders.