War on Drugs:Causes ConseqAlt

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The United States faces today the most lethal drug epidemic in American history. The massive scale of fatal drug overdoses – due to the presence of dangerous amounts of fentanyl now present in almost all illegally sold drugs – requires a reinvention of the country’s drug policy, especially regarding domestic drug enforcement and drug treatment/public health programs. However, despite some important innovations which will be explored in the course, we are still saddled by outdated approaches and attitudes developed over fifty years ago. The course will examine: · The initial formation of domestic drug laws and international drug control treaties, · Centralization of U.S. drug policy making in the White House starting under President Nixon, · Policy responses to rising drug use in the 1960s and 1970s, · The enforcement focused/mass incarceration approaches to the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, · The formation, organization and activities of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1989, · The emergence of the opioid crisis in the 2000s, starting with massive prescription drug misuse fostered by the ruthless marketing of Purdue Pharma of OxyContin, · A review of proposed drug policy reforms – what the evidence shows is effective and what the prospects are for their enactment on the Federal and state level. Class lectures and discussion will scrutinize outcomes of these policies, including mass incarceration, racial disparities, evolving drug abuse trends, increasing overdose rates, and violence domestically and abroad. The course will examine both traditional prevention, treatment, drug enforcement and supply reduction policies and newer approaches, including alternatives to incarceration and harm reduction policies designed to break the cycle of addiction, arrest, and incarceration. Proposals for the legalization of various drugs will be reviewed and debated. During weekly class discussion students will have an opportunity to share their views.