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417 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1975)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0417 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Since the second half of the nineteenth century when opium use was first recognized in the United States as a social evil to be eliminated, policy makers and program administrators have persistently battled with the now institutionalized though still elusive social problem of drug abuse. Over the years, as the meanings of the term itself, and therefore the definitions of the drug problem, have changed and the degree of public concern and symbolic importance attached to the problem have heightened, those charged with the formation and development of drug policy have created, in the words of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, a drug abuse industrial complex to deal with it. The crisis intervention method characteristic of drug policy development in the United States, however, has never allowed for full comprehension, or even recognition, of the complexity and inherent dynamics of the drug problem. As such, the formulation of drug policy at the federal, state and local levels has proceeded, for the most part, on the basis of outmoded definitions, untested and often unwarranted assumptions and inappro- priate perspectives, generally without the benefit of proper planning or reliable and valid data. The purpose of this volume is to highlight some of the major political, legislative, economic and social concerns which underlie drug policy in the United States; to examine the policy development process; and to cast some direct light on the capabilities and limitations of various institutional resources and responses in their pursuit of solutions to the drug problem as they perceive it. The first section is devoted to the policy development process. Joseph R. Gusfield opens the discussion with an analysis of the relation- ship between knowledge and public policy. He suggests that the visibility of policy statements, the meanings and symbolic importance attached to drugs and drug use, and the context within which the drug problem is defined explain the limitations on the use and usefulness of knowledge and social science research in the formation of public policy regarding drug use and abuse. Ralph M. Susman turns his attention to Congress and examines its fact-finding process and legislative efforts designed to deal with drug abuse. He discusses in some detail the perspective from which Congress has operated in this endeavor, traces the role of the law enforcement and criminal justice bureaucracy in the formulation and development of drug policy, and calls into question the degree of public accountability and the standard of performance maintained by Congress over the years in its response to the problem of drug use and abuse. Selma Mushkin discusses the political and economic issues which have influenced and shaped the government's response to heroin and other drug use. These issues include the change in public opinion; the geographic spread of the problem; the changing character of the drug using population; the increasing number of, and social costs attendant to, drug-related crime; the significant increase in resources allocated for drug abuse programs; ix

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