ABSTRACT

This chapter describes more than we explain European drug policy convergence. The first is the development of a genuinely European policy discourse, a relatively new social fact that sociologists need to be able to handle. Overall, that discourse as practiced in the various countries concurs on a few main principles to be abided by and a set of interventions to be practiced in the framework of drug policies. Convergent does not mean identical, and any conscientious observer of policies in European Union states knows how much they can still differ from each other. Ensuring protection against the ills that the individual's behavior could cause others is more clearly a legitimate strategy for framing social problems in the United States and getting them on the policy agenda than it is in France. The issue of smoking illustrates the cultural contrast between France and the United States on this point.