by New York County Lawyers’Association Drug Policy Task Force

About the author: The New York County Lawyers' Association Drug Policy Task Force was established in 1993 to study drug policy issues and formulate a set of recommendations for resolving problems related to drug laws and drug abuse.

It has become a widely accepted fact that drug policy, as employed during the past three decades by the federal government, and in state and local jurisdictions throughout the United States, has largely failed to meet its stated objectives.

Current drug policy relies on an “enforcement” or “penal” model, emphasizing interdiction, arrest, prosecution and incarceration of both distributors and users of controlled substances as its primary “weapons” in what has often been characterized as a “war on drugs.&rdquo...