This book presents a comprehensive examination of the drug control policy process in the United States. Zimring and Hawkins present different ways of understanding American drug policy and provide a foundation for an improved policy process. They argue that protection of children and youth should shape policy toward illicit crime.

This book is about the process of making drug control policy. How are policy choices identified, debated, and made in an atmosphere of intense concern? How are the consequences of governmental policy measured and evaluated? How, if at all, do we learn from our mistakes? We undertook this project convinced that just as much as we need new drug policies, we need a new drug policy process to create an environment in which alternatives can be rationally debated.