Drug law reform: when bad policy is good politics

摘要

The need for reform of drug laws is now growing in many countries, but change is slow because bad policy is still good politics. Thus, many political systems are unable to move forward with reform of drug laws, and change seems most likely to happen through pressure from civil society.The global prohibition of drugs developed over many decades, becoming entrenched when three international treaties were agreed between 1961 and 1988. The political usefulness of a punitive approach to drugs first became apparent when President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "War on Drugs" in 1971 contributed to tiis landslide victory in the 1972 US Presidential election. This encouraged politicians around the world to emulate Nixon's effective political strategy.