Volume 39, Number 11 · June 11, 1992
What Ever Happened to the 'War on Drugs'?
By Michael Massing
The Search for Rational Drug Control
by Franklin E. Zimring, by Gordon Hawkins
Cambridge University Press, 219 pp., $24.95
Cocaine Changes: The Experience of Using and Quitting
by Dan Waldorf, by Craig Reinarman, by Sheigla Murphy
Temple University Press, 326 pp., $34.95
Dead on Delivery: Inside the Drug Wars, Straight from the Street
by Robert M. Stutman, by Richard Esposito
Warner Books, 274 pp., $22.95
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results
by Mark A. R. Kleiman
Basic Books, 474 pp., $26.00
Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs
by Clarence Lusane, with Dennis Desmond
South End Press, 293 pp., $13.00 (paper)
Four years ago, during the last presidential campaign, the drug issue was never far from the political spotlight. According to opinion polls, drugs were the nation's leading concern, and candidates competed to propose solutions. Every day, stories about crack dealers and drug busts were featured on the front pages of newspapers and on television, and Congress, caught in an election year frenzy, worked overtime to pass a multibillion-dollar drug-control act. The concern continued into President Bush's first year in office. 'This scourge will end,' he promised in his inaugural address. And, in September 1989, the President devoted an entire speech to the subject, appearing on television holding a bag of crack, which was later revealed to have been purchased by an undercover agent in a park across from the White House. Three months later, US troops invaded Panama and seized Manuel Noriega in what could have been called the largest drug bust in history.
Review, 5757 words
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