ABSTRACT
Crime policy analysts generally agree that imprisonment for drug use, or even drug sale, is an ineffective strategy, but the public seems to demand increasingly severe sanctions for these behaviors. The central point is the drug abuse does indeed underlie many aspects of the crime problem and that an effective, politically acceptable crime policy must incorporate an effective, politically acceptable policy regarding drugs. The belief the drug uses is a private matter is most closely associated with John Stuart Mill's theory of individual liberty. A natural question is whether the current federal policy, based on the mala in se approach, has been effective in achieving that policy's stated purpose, which is to abolish drug use in the United States. The drug problem has two facets: one is abuse and addiction, whether of legal or illegal drugs; the second is the crime and violence connected to illegal drug use and sale.
