ABSTRACT
The United States has been waging a domestic War on Drugs for over a century, beginning with the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, a seminal piece of federal legislation that criminalized the possession of heroin and cocaine. This prohibitionist approach was exported internationally through subsequent policies that explicitly funded drug interdiction efforts, expanded the enforcement apparatus, and made foreign aid contingent on a nation’s willingness to adopt a criminalizing approach to drugs. Despite billions of dollars spent, global drug use remains stable or has increased in some cases, and significant unintended public health and human rights challenges have emerged that disproportionately affect marginalized populations around the world. This chapter provides an overview of domestic policies that have contributed to the international expansion of the drug war, identifies challenges that have resulted from criminalization, and proposes a number of policies that aim to center public health and human rights. Policy alternatives to criminalization are then outlined. Lastly, a reflection on how values underscoring professional social work conflict with punitive drug policies both philosophically and regarding collateral human rights and public health consequences is presented.
