Get Tough & Smart - How to Start Winning the War on Drug Addiction

" Perhaps the most significant improvement in the field of corrections over the last several decades has been the advancement and routinization of risk and risk–need assessment instruments within justice agencies (Andrews, Bonta, and Wormith,   2006 ; Bonta,   2002 ). Actuarial risk-prediction instruments can tell us which offenders are most likely to reoffend as well as whom among the offender population we might want to target for more intensive rehabilitative programming. 1   Adhering to the risk principle by targeting higher risk offenders and matching the intensity of controls and services to risk levels has been found to improve the effectiveness of correctional interventions (Andrews and Bonta,   2010 ; Dowden and Andrews,   1999a ,   1999b ; Landenberger and Lipsey,   2005 ; Lowenkamp and Latessa,   2005 ; Lowenkamp, Latessa, and Holsinger,   2006 )." From Vol. 14, Issue 1, Criminality & Public Policy , "Risk Tells Us Who, Bu...

Why is it that we point the finger of blame at other countries instead of our own? Isn't U.S. demand for illegal drugs the source of the problem?  Sure, the drugs themselves often originate south of the Mexican border, but the drug epidemic starts here in the U.S., which is where the money starts to fund the traffic. Every time we point a finger of blame at another country for our drug and crime problems, there are three fingers pointing back at the U.S. Please take note, Mr. Trump.  

Over the last 20 years, the average price of cocaine has declined. Over the last 20 years, the average price of heroin has declined. The supply of methamphetamine ("meth") has increased markedly over the last 20 years. Our efforts to eliminate the supply of cocaine in South America have failed. Our efforts to eliminate the supply of heroin from various places in the world have similarly failed. Meth has always been fairly easy to obtain. In fact, from its origins as a cottage industry made in makeshift rural locations, methamphetamine is now produced on an industrial scale in Mexico and brought to the United States and sold in very pure quantities as "crystal meth." Nothing we do stops the supply of illegal drugs. There are plenty of up-and-coming drug dealers to replace the drug dealers who are incarcerated or killed. It is little consolation that capitalistic drug cartels and distribution networks are running rings around the government at all levels.  ...