About the Book
There are currently nearly half a million drug offenders incarcerated in US jails, more than the entire EU prison population. Added to the financial consequences of current drug policy there is the enormous human cost. Police corruption, organized crime, contempt for the law and drugs made dangerous because they are illegal and thus not subject to proper controls are other consequences of current drug policies. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum are now beginning to ask: is it worth it?
In this trenchantly argued book both students and the general public will find a clear statement of the case for the decriminalization of recreational drugs. For instance, more than half of high school seniors take drugs, yet the US is not overrun with drug-crazed addicts. Indeed, psychological tests show that adults who have experimented with drugs but are not addicts are better adjusted than either abstainers or heavy users. Horror stories of the dangers of drug use abound, but the truth is more prosaic; although recreational drugs are sometimes bad for users, there are between 80 and 90 million US citizens who have used illicit drugs without ill effects.