Beyond the War on Drugs Overcoming a Failed Public Policy

9780879755874

0879755873

This provocative and controversial book rejects the popular pabulum of more laws, more money, more enforcement personnel, and more jails as the road to victory in the 'war on drugs'. Steven Wisotsky masterfully documents the failure of the drug war and the erroneous premise central to its destructive and doomed strategy: the idea that drug taking controls human behaviour; that drugs 'cause' physical dependency. We must move beyond the war on drugs by repudiating their obsessive preoccupation with controlling or prohibiting drugs. Instead, we must replace this mindset with a new view that acknowledges individual freedom and the power of directing our choices toward responsible human behaviour.