Effective Drug Control: Toward A New Legal Framework

availability, would be easy to transition to from prohibition, and would avoid the
principal problem of the “supermarket model” – the potential for a substantial increase in
amount and diversity of psychoactive drug consumption. 483
Specific Models
Safe Administration and Prescription of “Hard” Drugs
A model now in effect in Canada, Switzerland and many other countries in
Europe is the safe administration of “hard” drugs, particularly heroin. 484 While some
worry about the diversion of drugs from the clinics, it has been shown that illegally
distributed methadone has come from its use as a prescription painkiller, not diversion
from opioid treatment programs, programs comparable to the heroin maintenance
programs. 485
Numerous countries have also instituted opiate prescription programs in which
hard-core drug addicts are brought indoors into medically-supervised facilities and
stabilized with controlled doses that are free of charge. These programs have brought
about very promising outcomes, including: reductions in overdose deaths; reductions in
the transmission of disease; reductions in economic crimes related to addiction;
reductions in levels of public disorder; reductions in the quantity of drugs used;
elimination of drug habits altogether for 20% of participants; stabilization of the health of
participants; increased employment rates of participants; law enforcement support; and a
changed culture in which addictive drugs like heroin lose their cachet and are considered
to be medication for the sick, resulting in declining rates of first-time use of such drugs. 486
The opiate prescription programs in Europe and Canada are made possible only
through specific, carefully circumscribed exemptions from the prohibition-based legal
framework and not through any fundamental change of that framework.
Past Proposed Legislation
There has already been legislation proposed, or at least drafted, in Congress and
in state legislatures. While some have only addressed cannabis, the scope of other bills
has extended to all currently prohibited drugs. One of the first bills to begin addressing
legalization was introduced in the New York senate in 1971 by Senator Franz Leichter. 487
The bill established a Marijuana Control Authority to license and regulate commerce in
cannabis, similar to alcohol regulation but forbidding advertising. The bill was
introduced throughout the 1970s and attracted a number of co-sponsors. One co-sponsor,
Senator Joseph L. Galiber, introduced his own bill in 1989, expanding the scope of the
Leichter bill to include all drugs. The bill was entitled, “A Bill to Make All Illegal Drugs
as Legal as Alcohol.” 488 Under the Galiber bill, a State Controlled Substances Authority
would be authorized to make all necessary rules for drug production, distribution and
sales. Doctors and pharmacists would be licensed to sell all controlled substances.
Senator Galiber, disturbed by the harsh ineffectiveness of the so-called “Rockefeller drug
laws” in New York, continued to introduce versions of his bill throughout the 1990s until
his death.