REDEFINING THE GOALS OF NATIONAL DRUG POLICY - RECOMMENDATIONS FROM AWORKING GROUP

This paper discusses what the goals of national drug policy have been and suggests an alternative set of goals. The past emphasis on use red uction is found wanting. Total harm related to drugs can be viewed as the product of use and harm per use, Thus, reducing use usually serves to reduce harm. However, in some cases, use reduction programs may in crease harm per use so much that they increase overall harm even as th ey succeed in reducing use. Hence, use reduction goals can be usefully augmented with the explicit objective of reducing the total harm crea ted by the production, distribution, consumption, and control of drugs . Numerous programmatic recommendations flow from this approach.