Rethinking Drug Policy

Abstract

The drug war has failed and must end. The question is: How—and what should replace it? Ideally, an improved response to injurious forms of drug use would reduce the harm caused by criminal legal system involvement, the suffering that stems from unmanaged addiction, the harm that flows from illicit and unregulated drug markets, and racial inequities in all of these sources of harm. This chapter identifies several shifts in drug policy that achieve these goals and are feasible in the near to medium term. These include the radical expansion of alternative responses to substance use disorder and low-level crime based on harm-reduction principles and dramatically increased investment in medication-assisted treatment programs and in low-income housing, including Housing First models. If brought to scale, these changes would reduce drug-related suffering, the harm associated with the illicit drug market, the misery caused by the involvement of the criminal legal system in the lives of people who use illicit substances, and racial inequities in these forms of suffering.