Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121922

Roger E. Goodman, JD, MPA, Director, Drug Policy Project, King County Bar Association, 1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98101, 206-267-7001, rogerg@kcba.org

Abstract Text: Drug misuse in America diverts police, clogs our courts, demands treatment beds we do not have and cannot afford, contributes to road rage and creates terror in inner-city neighborhoods. Law-and-order politicians have declared war on drugs. The federal government has spent billions of dollars on law enforcement, and to some extent on treatment and prevention, yet we still have an active smuggling enterprise readily meeting the demand of hundreds of thousands of addicts. Do we want to continue to manage the “drug war” like the Vietnam War? Provide more firepower? Or is it time to try a more peaceful alternative? Public health practitioners are interested in the approaches proposed by the King County (Washington) Bar Association's Drug Policy Project. This project places an emphasis on prevention (e.g., delay age of first use, employ harm reduction strategies, provide treatment for co-occurring disorders and increase school- and community-based prevention services), expanding the availability and adequacy of treatment and working with legislators to change drug policy. State-level regulation is proposed as an alternative to the “war on drugs.” This session will contrast the two points of view and allow for a dialogue on more effective strategies to address the increasing misuse of both legal and prohibited drugs.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participants will be able to

• Describe and contrast perspectives on solutions to American drug misuse.
• Discuss why regulation of drugs might be more effective than criminalization of drug use.
• Identify economic and public health issues inherent in each approach.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation