"ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, The"

Susman, Ralph M.; Kupperstein, Lenore R.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700101pmid: N/A

Gusfield, Joseph R.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700102pmid: N/A

This paper discusses the ambiguities and levels of public policy, with emphasis on the consequences of the visibility of policy statements. The symbolic aspects of public policy are analyzed, and the character of meanings other than those attributed by scientific experts is discussed. Impli cations of "drugs" as related to youth and cultural change help to explain limitations on the use of knowledge in public policy. A distinction is drawn between visible policy and the policy of day-to-day action. Several ways in which knowledge does contribute to policy are then specified.

Susman, Ralph M.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700103pmid: N/A

This article concerns Congress, its fact-finding process and its legislative efforts designed to deal with problems related to narcotic and drug abuse. In essence, it examines the perspective within which Congress has defined and has attempted to solve the "drug problem" and traces the manner in which the law enforcement and criminal justice bureaucracy gradually came to be the principal architects and purveyors of drug control legisla tion. It also addresses the matter of public accountability and bureaucratic and congressional performance relative to fact-finding and the policy formulation process. Lastly, it provides an assessment of what is required of Congress if it is to undertake more rational and responsible action in reference to the problems of drug use and abuse.

Mushkin, Selma

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700104pmid: N/A

Relative numbers and relative costs define the type and size of political response to drug abuse in the United States. Those who are damaged by the crime originating in drug abuse outnumber the abusers. While the total cost of crime attributed to drug abuse is high and exceeds efforts of control, intractability of the problem stands in the way of effective action. This paper presents an alternative to the "get-tough" policies represented by action recently taken in New York and the priorities of the federal 1975 budget. It is a second chance of self-help in a new life. Analysis of this proposal is a next step. Its potential adoption, given the relative numbers, is not favorable, and the preferred approach is likely to be incremental. But there is reason to expect that incremental solutions are not sufficient.

Matlins, Stuart M.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700105pmid: N/A

ASTRACT: Because planning is often viewed as being external to the total management process, planning activities are often isolated from the management system within which they take place and which they are intended to serve. As a result, the use and utility of the planning product as a tool for management decision making and a more rational approach to the allocation of society's resources are sig nificantly diminished. To a large extent, the "drug crisis" and society's response to it has suffered from this isolation of planning activity from the management process. This article addresses the practical side of the process as it actually takes place and concentrates on the major factors that affect the ultimate use, or nonuse, of the product. More specifically, it describes the various purposes for research data in the area of drugs and social policy; defines and describes the different types of planning activities that may be used to obtain the data needed; describes the major approaches to planning as currently utilized; highlights some of the problems in current planning activities; and recommends some improvements that can be made in the planning process and in the use of its products.

Brotman, Richard; Suffet, Frederic

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700106pmid: N/A

The concept of prevention was first developed in the field of public health and epidemiology. Since the 1960s, it has been applied increasingly to illicit drug use, thus standing alongside law and treatment as a major form of social control over drugs. While a strict epidemiologic, or "contagion," model of drug use is held by some, we find this model to be of limited utility for discussing the broad range of efforts commonly defined in the field as preventive. An economic, or supply-demand, model is proposed instead. Under this model, prevention is defined as the attempt to reduce the demand for drugs. Four strategies for reducing demand are discussed: (1) coercion, or the threat of formal punitive sanctions; (2) persuasion, or education in the harmful consequences of drug use; (3) correction, or the eradication of the presumed causes of drug use; and (4) substitution, or the provision of alternatives to drug use. The limitations of each strategy are discussed, and because of the prevalence of recreational patterns of moderate drug use, it is concluded that the prevention of all illicit drug use is not an achievable goal.

Tinklenberg, Jared R.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700107pmid: N/A

Nonmedical drug taking and antisocial be havior are both complex, dynamic processes; consequently, the impact of these behaviors on each other is difficult to assess. Among the multiple factors to be considered are the pharmacological properties of the drug, the psychological characteristics of the individual, the social environment, and the various categories of antisocial behavior. Many methodological problems are inherent in research that attempts to define relationships between illicit drug use and antisocial behavior. Sampling problems are common since deviant individuals are generally not used in controlled laboratory studies, whereas field studies often are confined to inherently deviant populations such as prison inmates. Field studies are limited by lack of information about pharmacological variables as well as the difficulty in obtain ing adequate control groups. The extreme forms of antisocial behavior are not amenable to laboratory study. Thus, research on illicit drug use and assaultive or sexual crimes is usually restricted to retrospective field studies which often indicate both forms of deviance present in the same individual. A cause and effect relationship cannot be inferred from retrospective studies; both behaviors often appear to be covariants of the same developmental process.

Kupperstein, Lenore R.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700108pmid: N/A

Over the years, various attempts have been made to define, describe and measure the nature and dimensions of psychoactive drug use in the United States. The purpose of this article is to address the problems of definition associated with the traditional concept of "drug abuse"; to examine the various formulations of "the drug problem"; to assess the efficacy of the survey method and other research techniques currently utilized to estimate the nature and extent of drug use; and to report on some of the efforts made by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse to provide guidance and direction in this area to researchers and policy makers alike.

Barcus, F. Earle; Jankowski, Susan M.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700109pmid: N/A

Mass media have been described as all- pervasive cultural institutions which both reflect and project society's values. They are shown to have played a role throughout history, whenever new developments have threatened established values, and often are singled out as important facilitators and accelerators of social change. As such, it is not surprising that various charges have been leveled against the mass media for their purported role in the recent and significant escalation of psychoactive drug use and abuse. Some critics have attempted to relate the act of viewing or experiencing the mass media to problems of drug use; others have focused their charges on, and label as villains, the contents of the media, as in advertising, television entertainment and popular song lyrics. The intent of this paper is to examine some of these accusations and to explore the issues and the evidence in the current con troversy over the role of mass media in the use and abuse of psychoactive drugs.

Robinson, Gerald L.; Miller, Stephen T.

doi: 10.1177/000271627541700110pmid: N/A

Traditionally, American society has entrusted to its colleges and universities the authority to govern broad aspects of student life on campus; it has expected in return the mental, physical and moral well-being of the students in their charge. By the late 1960s, however, both the con cept and practice of in loco parentis by educational institutions had come under increasing attack, with chal lenges most frequently being directed to the right of colleges and universities to control nonacademic aspects of student life and conduct, including the use of psychoactive drugs. Despite the concern voiced by parents and educators over the escalating use of psychoactive drugs by young people and the waves of drug use reaching the college campus, college administrators, with virtually no experience in this area, generally found themselves unprepared to cope with the problem. The intent of this paper is to examine the responses of college and university administrators to student drug use, to explore the manner in which drug policies have been formulated and implemented in response to the perceived problem, and to reflect on the impact and effective ness of the policies which have emerged and which are currently in force at institutions of higher learning through out the country.