Effective Drug Control: Toward A New Legal Framework

experts in pharmacology, medicine, public health, education, law and law enforcement,
as well as public officials and civic leaders, to provide specific recommendations for
legislative action to establish such a state-level system of regulatory control. The Board
of Trustees of the King County Bar Association adopted a resolution on January 19,
2005, published herein, calling for the establishment of such a consultative body
This report is the product the Legal Frameworks Group of the King County Bar
Association Drug Policy Project, which included the participation of more than two
dozen attorneys and other professionals, as well as scholars, public health experts, state
and local legislative staff, current and former law enforcement representatives and current
and former elected officials. The Legal Frameworks Group moved beyond the mere
criticism of the current drug control regime and set out to lay the foundation for the
development of a new, state-level regulatory system to control psychoactive substances
more effectively.
This report is divided into the following major sections:
Part I surveys the history of drug use and drug control efforts, especially in the
United States, and also reflects on the cultural context of drugs and drug use in America,
with the intent of informing the development of a politically tenable drug control model.
Part II reports on innovative developments around the world in approaches to the
problems of drug abuse and drug-related crime, searching for appropriate models to
replicate or adapt in the United States.
Part III describes the current system for attempting to control prohibited
psychoactive substances at the federal and state levels and identifies specific proposals
for fundamental drug law reform that have been put forward over the years, including
scholarly papers and other state-level legislative proposals.
Part IV presents that argument that federal law should yield to the primacy of the
states, permitting the states to develop their own drug control systems and restoring the
balance that allows states to be the laboratories to change and improve laws and public
policy.
Part V outlines the parameters of a state-level system for controlling psychoactive
substances that are currently produced and distributed exclusively in illegal markets,
including consideration of a host of complex practical questions around manufacturing,
purity and safety, labeling, distribution, medical supervision, licensing, prescriptions,
advertising and counter-advertising, criminal enforcement, third-party liability and other
issues.