Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs What We Don't Know Keeps Hurting Us (2001) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6 Sanctions against Users of Illegal Drugs
6 Sanctions against Users of Illegal Drugs
Pages 187-207
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 187... ...
the rich fabric of deeply ingrained social controls against illicit drug use, including legal controls. LEGAL SANCTIONS AND SOCIAL CONTROL In this chapter, the committee addresses sanctions against using drugs within the broad framework of social control.
|
From page 188... ...
On one side, defenders of strong prohibitions and severe penalties argue that these laws are needed to express, symbolize, and undergird social norms against drug use (DuPont, 1996~. On the other side, critics of harsh penalties and zero-tolerance policies argue that over-reliance on formal controls can displace or weaken informal controls, especially when the intrusiveness and severity of the laws generate social alienation and discord (National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1973; Erickson, 1993~.
|
From page 189... ...
Possession of any amount of illegal drugs is a crime under both federal and state law, typically punishable by incarceration. (The only exception is possession of small amounts of marijuana, which, in a handful of states, is punishable only by a fine.)
|
From page 190... ...
In this section, however, we are interested in how prescribing and enforcing sanctions against drug users may function, at the population level, as an instrument of primary prevention. Sanctions against users may depress prevalence in two ways: by expressing social norms against drug use (declarative effects)
|
From page 191... ...
It is often suggested that laws against use of illegal drugs and underage use of alcohol and tobacco have such effects, although there is little direct evidence of this (MacCoun, 1993~. The empirical literature bearing on the declarative effects of legal sanctions is scant, mainly because it is so difficult to distinguish these effects from deterrent effects or to disentangle the effects of preexisting social norms and informal controls from the declarative effects of formally prescribed sanctions.
|
From page 192... ...
Other factors, including the perceived benefits of drug use, fear of health-related risks, and informal social controls, may have a more significant influence on decisions about using drugs than legal deterrence. As in the case of underage alcohol and tobacco use, current enforcement may have a stronger effect on where people carry or use drugs, rather than on whether they do so.
|
From page 193... ...
Most have tested the deterrent effects of punishment and social control on alcohol or marijuana use, drunk driving, or other crimes that have higher base rates (e.g., Meter and Johnson, 1977;
|
From page 194... ...
Finally, most empirical studies on the general deterrent effects of law and social control have proceeded on a separate track from studies on the specific deterrent effects of punishment. This bifurcation of the empirical literature has led some researchers to suggest a revised, "perceptual deterrence" framework that incorporates both direct (arrests, incarceration)
|
From page 195... ...
The committee recommends that the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute on Drug Abuse collaboratively undertake research on the declarative and deterrent effects, costs, and cost-effectiveness of sanctions against the use of illegal drugs. Particular attention should be paid to the relation between severity of prescribed sanctions and conditions of enforcement and the rates of initiation and termination of illegal drug use among different segments of the population.
|
From page 196... ...
Section 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 permanently denies food stamps or cash assistance to persons convicted of a drug felony. Although the federal law allows states to opt out of the ban, only eight have done so, and some states have gone further, excluding drug felons from state assistance programs as well as the federal program.
|
From page 197... ...
The committee recommends that the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute on Drug Abuse collaborate in stimulating research on the effects of supplemental sanctions, including loss of welfare benefits, driver's licenses, and public housing, on the use of illegal drugs. EMPLOYMENT SANCTIONS In 1986, President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order directing federal agencies to establish a comprehensive employee drug testing program, setting the stage for adoption of drug testing policies throughout the workforce.
|
From page 198... ...
According to the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse in 1994, one third of adults in the workforce reported that their employers operate a drug testing program. About 14 percent of the employed respondents reported that their employers tested only at hiring, whereas the remainder (18 percent)
|
From page 199... ...
As indicated, however, the law in most states leaves employers free to adopt a random testing program for all employees, and it appears that many employers have done so. The question of interest is whether the expanding practice of workplace drug testing deters drug use by employees.3 In 1994, the National Academies' Committee on Drug Use in the Workplace concluded that the preventive effects of drug testing have never been adequately demonstrated and that there existed no conclusive "scientific evidence from properly controlled studies" that employment drug testing programs widely discourage drug use or encourage rehabilitation.
|
From page 200... ...
Until recently, nationally representative data that could be used to examine the association between drug use and drug testing outside the military have not been collected (National Research Council, 1994~. However, the 1994 National Household Survey of Drug Abuse included a special workplace module that contained a series of questions about workplace drug testing programs.
|
From page 201... ...
The committee recommends that the Bureau of Labor Statistics monitor the measures taken by employers to discourage use of illegal drugs by their employees, including drug testing, and that the National Institute on Drug Abuse support rigorous research on the preventive effects and cost-effectiveness of workplace drug testing. SCHOOL SANCTIONS School Discipline There is very little systematic evidence regarding the application of school disciplinary sanctions to student use of illegal drugs (or alcohol or tobacco)
|
From page 202... ...
The survey found that almost all schools have written policies about drugs, and almost all schools report that they usually expel or suspend students for possession of alcohol or illegal drugs. A substantial majority of schools report that they impose these sanctions automatically for possession of illegal drugs (77 percent)
|
From page 203... ...
The committee recommends that the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement support rigorous research on the preventive effects, costs, and cost-effectiveness of drug testing in high schools, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between drug testing and other formal and informal mechanisms of social control. REFERENCES American Management Association 1999 About AMA.
|
From page 204... ...
Erickson, P.G. 1993 The law, social control, and drug policy: Models, factors, and processes.
|
From page 205... ...
Lavison 1999 Worker drug use and workplace drug-testing programs: Results from the 1994 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Contemporary Drug Problems 26(Summer)
|
From page 206... ...
1993 Preventing Drug Abuse: What Do We Know? Committee on Substance Abuse Prevention Research.
|
From page 207... ...
Sullivan, C.D. 1989 User-accountability provisions in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988: Assaulting civil liberties in the war on drugs.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.