The Global Drug Prohibition Debate: Has the "War on Drugs" Reached Tipping Point?

• Mexico and Argentina have recognized the economic and social consequences of the drug war and have taken steps to essentially decriminalize personal use of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin;
• Critics of the drug war have pointed out how the word "war" brings to mind a perpetual state of emergency that is used to justify military spending and paramilitary activities that would not be tolerated in "peacetime";
• The war on drugs is not really working and it doesn’t really help anyone.
Hawdon, J. (2001) 'The role of presidential rhetoric in the creation of a moral panic/ Reagan, Bush, and the war on drugs', Deviant Behavior, 22(5), pp.419-445.
• This article presents a typology of drug policies and shows how they are used at different stages of a moral panic;
• Punitive policies are good at dening the problem, not highlighting success at solving it;
• An antagonist, or folk devil, must be fought in order to give hope for a solution. The collective can be confident that their efforts will be effective by identifying some evil organization that can be targeted.
• The frequent use of communitarian language articulated in proactive policies will almost certainly signal the onset of a moral panic.
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