Protection of individual freedom and civil liberties is highly valued in Canada. Yet, as a society, Canadians allow the erosion of these rights in the service of the War on Drugs. Ostensibly, this war is waged in order to protect society at large, and to protect individuals from themselves. However, the harm to society and to individuals resulting from our drug control policies is, in fact, greater than the benefits which drug policy legislators would have us believe are achievable. Through these policies, we are condoning a war of economics, politics, and power, while simultaneously sacrificing our societal and individual rights, rather than supporting a rational effort toward lessening the abuse of drugs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlexanderB.HadawayP.F.1982Opiate addiction: The case for the adoptive orientation. Psychological Bulletin92:367–381.
2.
AlexanderB.K.BeyersteinB.L.MacInnesT.M.1987Methadone treatment in British Columbia: Bad medicine?Canadian Medical Association Journal136:25–28.
3.
AnglinM.D.BrechtM.L.WoodwardJ.A.BonnetD.G.1986An Empirical study of maturing out: Conditional factors. International Journal of the Addictions21(2):233–246.
4.
BellisD.J.1981Heroin and politicians: The failure of public policy to control addiction in America. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
5.
BennettR.BatenhorstR.GravesD.FosterT.S.BaumannT.GriffinW.O.WrightB.D.1982Morphine titration in postoperative laparotomy patients using patient-controlled analgesia. Current Therapeutic Research32(1):45–51.
6.
BeyersteinB.L.AlexanderB.K.1985Why treat doctors like pushers?Canadian Medical Association Journal132:337–341.
7.
BlackwellJ.1983Drifting, controlling and overcoming: Opiate users who avoid becoming chronically dependent. Journal of Drug Issues13:219–235.
8.
BlackwellJ.1988aAn overview of Canadian illicit drug use epidemiology. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
9.
BlackwellJ.1988bSin, sickness, or social problem? The concept of drug dependence. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
10.
BoydN.1983The Supreme court on drugs: Masters of reason in disarray. Canadian Lawyer6–10.
11.
BoydN.1984The origins of Canadian narcotics legislation: The process of criminalization in historical context. Dalhousie Law Journal8(1):102–136.
12.
BoydN.MillardC.WebsterC.D.1985Heroin “treatment” in British Columbia, 1976–1984: Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Canadian Journal of Criminology27:195–205.
13.
BrecherE.M.1972Licit and illicit drugs. Boston: Little, Brown.
14.
ChamblissW.J.1986Organized crime and U.S. politics. Canadian Dimension20:25–28.
15.
CohenP.1989Cocaine use in Amsterdam in non-deviant subcultures. Amsterdam: Instituut voor Sociale Geografie, U. of Amsterdam.
16.
ColeK.E.FisherG.ColeS.S.1968Women who kill. Archives of General Psychiatry19:1–8.
17.
EricksonP.G.AdlafE.M.MurrayG.F.SmartR.G.1987The Steel Drug: Cocaine in Perspective. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books.
18.
EricksonP.G.AlexanderB.K.1989Cocaine and addictive liability. Social Pharmacology3(3):249–270.
19.
FriedenbergE.Z.1980Deference to authority. White Plains, New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
20.
GilliesH.1965Murder in West Scotland. British Journal of Psychiatry111:1087–1094.
21.
GorritiG.1989How to fight the drug war. The Atlantic 263-70-76.
22.
GossopM.1982Living with drugs. London: Temple Smith Ltd.
23.
GreenM.1988Towards rational drug scheduling. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
24.
GriffenP. J.LambertS.1988What happened on the way to law reform. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
25.
GrinspoonL.BakalarJ.B.1987Medical uses of illicit drugs, la Dealing with drugs, HamowyR. (ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Co.
26.
HadawayP.F.BeyersteinB.L.1987Then they came for the smokers but I did not speak up because I wasn't a smoker: Legislation and tobacco use. Canadian Psychology28:259–265.
27.
HadawayP.BeyersteinB.L.BeyersteinD.1989A reply to Kaplan and Parlow: Minority rights and public health are not mutually exclusive. Canadian Psychology30:99–100.
28.
HadawayP.F.BeyersteinB.L.KimballM.1986Addiction as an adoptive response: Is smoking a functional behavior?Journal of Drug Issues16:371–390.
29.
LamarcheP.RootmanI.1987Health promotion surveys: Drug use by Canadians. Ottawa: Health Promotion Directorate.
30.
Le Dain Commission1973Commission of Inquiry into the Non-medical use of drugs. Final Report Queen's Printer.
31.
MarshallJ.1987Drug enforcement as Counterinsurgency. In Dealing with drugs, HamowyR. (ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Co.
32.
MayfieldD.1976Alcoholism, alcohol, intoxication and assaultive behavior. Diseases of the Nervous System27:288–291.
33.
McCoyA.W.ReadC.B.AdamsL.P.1972The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. New York: Harper and Row.
34.
MillJ.S.1952On liberty. In Great Books of the Western World43:267–323, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (Original work published 1859).
35.
MitchellC.N.1986A justice-based argument for the uniform regulation of psychoactive drugs. McGill Law Journal31:212–263.
36.
MorganJ.P.1988Impaired statistics and the unimpaired worker. The Drug Policy Letter1(2):4–5. Washington, D.C.
37.
MurrayG.F.1988The road to regulation: Patent medicines in Canada in historical perspective. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
38.
National Institute on Drug Abuse1978Drug abuse and crime. In Crime in Society, SavitzL.D.JohnstonN. (eds.). New York: Wiley.
39.
NadelmannE.A.1988The case for legalization. The Public Interest92:3–31.
40.
NadelmannE.A.1988U.S. drug policy: A bad export. Foreign Policy70:83–108.
41.
OswaldI.1969Personal view. British Medical Journal. February 15:438.
42.
RayO.S.1972Drugs, society, and human behavior. St. Louis: The C.V. Mosby Co.
43.
RobinsL.N.HeizerJ.E.DavisD.H.1975Narcotic use in southeast Asia and afterward. Archives of General Psychiatry32:955–961.
44.
RuterC.F.1986The painful dilemma: The role of criminal law in narcotics control policies. Presented at the 15th International Institute on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug Dependence, Amsterdam.
45.
SkrabanekP.1988The physician's responsibility to the patient. The Lancet1155–1157.
46.
SolomonR.R.1988The noble pursuit of evil: Arrest, search and seizure in Canadian drug law. In Illicit Drugs in Canada: A risky business, BlackwellJ.C.EricksonP.G. (eds.). Scarborough, Ontario: Nelson Canada.
47.
SolomonR.R.GreenM.1982The first century: The history of non-medical opiate use and control policies in Canada, 1870–1970. The Western Ontario Law Review20:307–336.
48.
StillL.1984Judge raps mounties, doctor for search. The Sun. Vancouver, B.C.: March 24.
49.
SzaszT.1987The morality of drug controls. In Dealing with drugs, HamowyR. (ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts: Heath and Co.
50.
TinklenbergJ.R.StillmanR.C.1970Drug use and violence. In Violence and the struggle for existence, DanielsD.GilulaM.OchbergF. (eds.). Boston: Little, Brown.
51.
TinklenbergJ.R.WoodrowK.M.1974Drug use among youthful assaultive and sexual offenders. In Aggression, FrazierS.H. (ed.). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
52.
TrebachA.S.1982The heroin solution. New Haven: Yale University Press.
53.
TrebachA.S.1984Is Canadian drug law truly this repressive?The Journal13:10.
54.
TrebachA.S.1987The Great Drug War. New York: Macmillan.
55.
WaldorfD.BiernackiP.1979Natural recovery from heroin addiction: A review of the incidence literature. Journal Drug Issues Spring:281–289.
56.
WeilA.1972The natural mind: A new way of looking at drugs and the higher consciousness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
57.
WeilA.RosenW.1983Chocolate to morphine: Understanding mind-acting drugs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
58.
WinickC.1962Maturing out of narcotic addiction. Bulletin Narcotics14:1–7.
59.
WisotskyS.1983Exposing the war on cocaine: The futility and destructiveness of prohibition. Wisconsin Law Review1305–1426.
60.
ZeeseK.B.1989The drug testing decisions: More threatening than they originally appeared. The Drug Policy Letter1(2):1–3. Washington, D.C.
