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Socio-legal scholarship has succeeded in describing the history and development of American drug and alcohol laws (Becker 1963; Gusfield 1963; Himmelstein 1983; Jenkins 1999), exploring the lived experience of users, dealers and manufacturers (Weisheit 1982; Adler 1985; Bourgeois 1995) and, more recently, comparing the vice control regimes of developed countries (MacCoun and Reuter 2001). However, existing scholarship has focused on the passage of laws rather than larger dynamics across time. This paper examines the control of coffee and gin in 17th and 18th century England and formulates four general propositions in the dynamics of the control of consciousness and intoxication over history. I draw upon the theories of Foucault and Garland regarding the rationalization of punishment and the development of "disciplinarity" and an economic approach to regulating behavior. This paper is not exhaustive but offers a starting point for a new discussion in the history of alcohol and drugs, with a greater focus on long-term trends and less of a focus on the passage of specific laws. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three institutions that have controlled drug policy in the United States from the beginning of American history: 1) the government, 2) the media, and 3) the public. This paper gives an introductory analysis of the public's often forgotten role in illegal drug policy in the United States from the first state laws in the 1870's until today. While other reseachers have touched on this idea, none have dedicated a paper to the entire history of drug laws, but rather focus on a small number of years. This analysis will provide a glimpse of what drug laws will be like in the future based on the past and current public views about drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we will discuss California's recent experiment with medical marijuana. To that end, we will first discuss the history of marijuana use. Next we will discuss the history and current trend in federal marijuana regulation. We will then examine California's medical marijuana law. We will conclude with how other states have used California's attempt (and their mistakes) as a guide for policy. In 1996, California made a bold experiment, to legalize the sale and use of marijuana for medical reasons. To be blunt, it was a good idea which lacked the detail necessary to make it work in a society of fifty million people. In this paper, we will discuss California's recent experiment with medical marijuana. To that end, we will first discuss the history of marijuana use. Next we will discuss the history and current trend in federal marijuana regulation. We will then examine California's medical marijuana law. We will conclude with how other states have used California's attempt (and their mistakes) as a guide for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First Amendment provides substantial protection for pharmaceutical advertisers in the United States. The legislative policies of European Union countries prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs. As use of the Internet increases worldwide, loose restraints on pharmaceutical advertising in the US affect users around the world. This paper traces the current state of the law in the US and the EU, and poses an ethical solution to the regulatory gap in the laws. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of rapid increases in the costs for outpatient prescription drugs, health insurance companies developed or contracted with pharmaceutical benefit management companies (PBMs) to perform a host of cost saving practices, including preapproval of prescriptions, before the drug is dispensed to the patient. Approval could be limited to the company's official list of approved drugs, or require significantly higher patient copayments for high cost drugs. Patients upset with non coverage or a high copayment were advised to contact the prescribing doctor and consider if a PBM-suggested alternative drug was acceptable. This paper explores how the growth and wide acceptance of the Internet, as well as resulting cost savings made possible the preapproval of outpatient drugs and how this practice may be affecting physician autonomy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a decade of contentious debate regarding the federal sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, a number of significant initiatives to reform current policy have recently emerged. These include legislation introduced in Congress and a series of hearings resulting in recommendations by the United States Sentencing Commission. This paper provides the background to these initiatives by surveying the differences between crack cocaine and powder cocaine as currently held by medical and other professionals. It also reviews the development of federal legislation that has created greater criminal penalties for crack than powder, and assesses recent developments in the effort to resolve these sentencing disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly a century, the federal government of the United States has engaged in a varietyof activities to stem the production, distribution, and sale of illicit substances, knowncollectively as the "war on drugs." This article chronicles the war on drugs in the UnitedStates, from its inception at the federal level, with the passage of the Harrison Act in1914, through the major laws and policies that have been enacted since the NixonAdministration, the first White House to declare a "war on drugs." This paper alsoexamines the failings of the country's drug policies and recommends a public healthapproach to addiction that shifts the bulk of resources from supply-side to demand-sideinitiatives, such as drug treatment programs, which have proven to lower drug use and tobe more cost effective than criminal justice responses to America's drug problem. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like all wars, the U.S. war on drugs has an almost unquenchable thirst for resources. Funds needed for sworn and civilian drug task force personnel, undercover drug buys, surveillance equipment, 24/7 wiretaps, communications monitoring, and informant payments all combine on the drug war front to demand substantial public safety resources. The special character of narcotics law enforcementits cross-jurisdictional naturehas generated a police institutional form known as the multi-jurisdictional task force (MJTF), a prime actor in the war on drugs. The federal drug control budget allocated approximately $3 billion to domestic law enforcement in 2003-04. Some of these resources are directed into MJTFs. What are these investments in the war on drugs buying? Are proper levels of resources put into areas where they can create the highest return? These questions are rarely answered, partly because systematic information about the volume of resources poured into drug enforcement operations is not routinely available, especially at the local jurisdictional front lines of the drug war. This paper will begin an exploratory analysis of the cost effectiveness of MJTF operations in one state, Indiana, which has 34 MJTFs. This analysis will focus on the MJTFs in some of Indianas major metropolitan areas (Indianapolis, Gary, South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Evansville MSAs). The analyses will use data from various sources (e.g., UCRs, MJTF reports, etc.) to assess relationships among MJTF outputs, metropolitan demographic characteristics, perceived drug problems, overall drug violations, and the total investments put into MJTFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The criminalization of drug use in the United States has drastically escalated arrest rates over the past 30 years. The probability of being arrested is dependent on the interaction of many factors which may include individual characteristics, community policing strategies, the social and economic status of neighborhoods, and the drug laws of a society. We analyze data from a sample of injection drug users (IDUs) that were participants in the California Syringe Exchange Program Study (CalSEP) to tease out the relative contribution of factors that predict individual arrests among IDUs. In addition to drawing on an interdisciplinary body of empirical evidence, we use social disorganization theory and conflict theory to predict the significance of racial, social, and economic characteristics at the zip code level on the odds of individual arrest among IDUs. The individual level factors independently associated with arrest support the existing literature, whereas the findings observed for the zip code level factors are not supported by our hypotheses. We found that IDUs living in neighborhoods with high levels of social and economic disadvantage are at decreased odds of arrest compared to IDUs living in zip codes with lower levels of such disadvantage, regardless of individual characteristics or behaviors. This research extends our understanding of the determinants of drug arrests across geographic space. The intersection of drug use and poverty may shift the context in which an individual faces arrest and heighten the visibility of IDUs, especially those who are homeless, in neighborhoods with lesser disadvantage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have described a continuum of American drug policy positions that include strict prohibition, medicalization, treatment alternatives to incarceration, harm reduction, and legalization. Many policy makers have called for a public health approach to drug policy that focuses on the need for treatment alternatives to incarceration, prevention, and activities that reduce the social consequences of drug abuse. Using a national sample of Public Health Agencies surrounding schools participating in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, we examined local PHA involvement in (1) advocacy for alternative drug policies and prevention activities, (2) actual involvement in such alternatives, and (3) variance in reported advocacy and involvement by community socio-demographics. Descriptive and multivariate analysis shows that many local PHAs are actively participating drug policy alternatives, either through advocacy or service provision. The majority of such participation focuses on prevention efforts. However, there may be a sufficient proportion of local PHAs that are involved in illicit drug-related policy alternatives such as treatment diversion and needle exchange to provide a base for developing public health alternatives for current criminal justice deterrence policies. This is particularly true in communities with the highest need for such policies and services, including African American and urban communities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors focus on the U.S. government's regulation of off-label promotion enforcement, scientific exchange process and medical data. They inform that the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (FDCA) has granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor labeling of drugs. They mention the United States v. Caronia court case wherein a court has issued that the government prosecute drug makers for FDA-approved drug.

The adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) is expected to pick up speed in the pharmaceutical industry as the U.S. government has imposed a regulation requiring the generation of pedigrees or a historical record of the movement of prescription drugs through different supply chain nodes. "Electronic" pedigrees require the use of electronic means to establish these records of custody. RFID is perceived to be a leading and promising technology for accelerating e-pedigree deployment among prescription drug firms. This qualitative descriptive study uses Tornatzky and Fleischer's (1990) technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework to analyze and understand the RFID implementation of two firms, Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Cephalon, as they seek to meet the e-pedigree requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This presentation is drawn from the Cross-National Survey of Pharmaceutical Diversion Study (2005) conducted by the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies at the University of Delaware. Over 300 U. S. police and regulatory agencies in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, were asked to complete a quarterly questionnaire regarding the amount and extent of pharmaceutical diversion in their jurisdictions. Prescription drug diversion is best defined as the "unlawful channeling of regulated pharmaceuticals from legal sources to the illicit marketplace." This presentation discusses the trends of prescription drug diversion by discussing which prescription drugs are most likely to be diverted as well as the major mechanisms by which these prescription drugs are diverted. Results of this study indicate the most widely diverted drugs are hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Oxycotin, Percodan, Percocet). Furthermore, results indicate that pharmaceuticals are channeled into the illicit marketplace through mechanisms such as, doctor shopping, prescription theft or forgery, residential burglary, physician "pill mills", insurance fraud and others. This study aims to illuminate the gaps in the research on pharmaceutical diversion by obtaining information on the diversion trends and rates of prescription drug abuse. Implications for policy regarding prescription drug abuse are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug problem has a unique history in China. The opium use and the Opium Wars in the mid-1800s tremendously shaped and changed the Chinese history. The use habit and the stereotyped image of 'opium fiends' of Chinese immigrants even made prints on drug policies in other nations such as the United States. This article examines criminal sentences and legal dispositions for offenders convicted of narcotics trafficking in China. Disposition and sentencing on drug trafficking is very severe based on Chinese laws, and carries potentially capital punishment. In this article, we first describe both the domestic and international context of war on drugs, and then discuss evolving laws and policies pertinent to drug trafficking in China. Using criminal court judgments of published cases, we further analyze quantitatively the offender, offense and situational dynamics of drug trafficking, and its sentencing dispositions. Further, we will study the impact of mitigating factors (e.g., attempted crimes, confession) involved in these case. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This poster presentation explores loss of life through use of legally prescribed drugs by health care professionals. The policies and practices are explored. The following question is raised: Are health care professionals and the pharmaceutical industry immune from prosecution? This query is raised in the context of loss of life and injury resulting from illicit drug use. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]