The war on drugs addiction

Abstract

Most drug policy specialists have reached the conclusion that the current approach to reducing drug use is a failure. Based on the idea that policy failure might result in governmental learning this article assesses the role of misinformation in impeding change in U.S. drug policy. It argues that state officials have applied a selective release of information in order to frame drug policy as a success. Thus, narrow-scoped tactical achievements hide broader strategic and tactical failures, which blocks governmental learning and change in the U.S. drug policy. In addition, this article makes an empirical contribution to the debate of whether or not President Obama has promoted a significant change in national security policy in general, and in the war on drugs in particular, by presenting evidence that the Democrat administration is still prioritising law enforcement and supply reduction to reduce drug use.