cover image The Return of the Dangerous Classes: Drug Prohibition and Policy Politics

The Return of the Dangerous Classes: Drug Prohibition and Policy Politics

Diana R. Gordon. W. W. Norton & Company, $29.95 (316pp) ISBN 978-0-393-03642-8

In a sweeping, cogent indictment of the ``war on drugs,'' Gordon argues that our prohibitionist, punitive drug policies escalate violence in poor communities but contribute little to the reduction of drug abuse. Drug control policy, she maintains, is a vehicle for conservatives' fears and antagonisms toward the ``dangerous classes''--minorities, youth, immigrants, liberals--whom it helps to marginalize. The core of this report consists of five case studies of drug politics, including the recriminalization of marijuana possession in Alaska and the emergence of a congressional consensus supporting the death penalty for drug kingpins. Gordon, who teaches political science at City College of New York, scrutinizes Europe's more liberal drug policies, particularly the strategy of ``harm minimization,'' which recognizes that many users are unwilling to give up drug use. Her compelling study challenges both prohibitionists and legalizers to go beyond entrenched positions for ways to treat drug abuse in its full social and medical dimensions. (Aug.)