The story of substance abuse and efforts to exert control over the misuse of drugs remains one of the most fascinating tales in American culture. For nearly a century, the American legal system has treated the misuse of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, amphetamines, and other psychoactive substance as a critical social problem requiring legal remedies in the vast majority of cases. During the 1970s, when American culture itself appeared to be threatened by the widespread use of such substances, President Richard M. Nixon declared a “war on drugs” that has, for the most part, continued to the present day. In light of the apparent failure of that “war” to resolve the nation’s drug problems, more and more legislators, addiction experts, psychologists and sociologists, and other interested parties are calling for a new approach to the nation’s “drug problem.” That approach is based on the assumption that substance abuse and addiction are primarily physiological problems that should be dealt with by means other than legal remedies, as are other health and medical problems. So, the first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen some movement away from the crime-based approach to substance abuse to a more medical-centered view of the problem.
In the brief period between the two editions of this book, evidence of this evolution has become more and more apparent. As the second edition goes to press, for example, the U.S. Congress has just passed the first meaningful legislation on substance abuse in decades, legislation that, for the first time, takes a long-term view on the problem and its resolution. Thus, while some features of the first edition still seem as fresh as if they were written yesterday, a new tone—one that often seems subsumed by elements of new hope and optimism—can also be found within these pages.
The format of the new edition is largely the same, although there have been some revisions in the content and arrangement of chapters.