Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2007
Source: Daily Utah Chronicle, The (UT Edu)
Copyright: 2007 The Daily Utah Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.utahchronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3072
Author: Lana Groves
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

DRUG POLICY TARGETS MINORITIES

Drug policies of the federal government negatively affect medical 
patients in need of medication and cause minorities to be prosecuted 
more than other drug offenders, according to a new book written by U 
professors.

Drugs and Justice: Seeking a Consistent, Coherent Comprehensive View, 
a book written by seven authors and four contributing authors from 
the U and Utah's legal community, says government drug policies are 
"incoherent" and explains why these "unjust" policies continue.

"Our legal system is a little schizophrenic -- with regards to drug 
policy it has multiple personalities," said Troy Booher, one of the 
book's main authors and a professor of law and political science at the U.

The book says different groups within the government and community 
have their own perspectives about how drugs should be regulated, 
which complicates drug policy.

The Drug Enforcement Administration thinks the best way to solve drug 
abuse is to make drugs illegal -- but if heroin is prohibited, 
morphine for surgical pain will be more difficult to access, said 
Arthur Lipman, another author of the book and a professor of 
pharmacotherapy at the U.

The Federal Drug Administration and the DEA consider drug policy from 
their own perspectives and rarely communicate, he said.

Another problem with drug policy is that the use of powdered and 
crack cocaine are prosecuted differently. The punishment for crack 
cocaine use, which typically involves blacks and Hispanics, is 10 
times greater than that for powdered cocaine, which is more typically 
used by white people, Lipman said.

"Should blacks and Hispanics be punished (more heavily) than 
middle-aged business men using cocaine for parties?" he said.

The seven authors realized several years ago during a seminar that 
many students had a close-minded view regarding drug policies.

"We realized that the way people saw drug policy was very biased -- 
they see it from a very narrow perspective and ignore larger issues," 
Lipman said.

The book covers all types of drug use, including prescription 
medicine; drugs available over the counter; alternative drugs; 
sports-enhancement drugs; social drugs such as alcohol or tobacco; 
and illegal recreational drugs.

"We're trying to show in the book that when we talk about drugs, we 
should look at all of them before making policy decisions," said 
Margaret Battin, lead author of the book and a U philosophy professor.

Besides discussing inconsistencies in drug policy, the book advises 
administrators that before considering drug policy decisions, they 
should take into account every issue involved by working on an 
interdepartmental system or by having a team of experts to give 
advice, Booher said.

"Boards and panels making decisions on drug policy should include 
experts from all of these areas." Battin said.

For example, drug enforcement authorities might view a particular 
drug as addictive, but medical experts in pain management may view it 
differently -- they don't see it as addictive, she said.

The book concludes by stating that "significant changes" in drug 
policy are necessary and require that laws regarding drug 
legalization or criminalization be rewritten to take into 
consideration the concerns of different groups.

The authors plan to teach students new ways of looking at drug policy 
through a new class starting Spring Semester that fulfills a science, 
social science or humanities credit. The class, which is also 
accepted as honors credit, will be taught by all seven authors at 
various points throughout the term. The three original authors -- 
Erik Luna, a law professor at the U, Battin and Lipman -- will teach 
the class with the other four authors assisting occasionally.

The book is unique in that the seven authors collaborated on the work 
by sitting down in sessions and discussing the issues at length.

"Usually any collaboration between disciplines just has one 
discipline asking another questions -- having five to six people in a 
room all talking about a problem and writing something together made 
the work more difficult, but easier to understand the issues," Booher said.

The book's other authors include Paul Gahlinger, a professor of 
medicine at the U, Douglas Rollins, a U professor in pharmacology and 
toxicology and Jeanette Roberts, a herbal drug expert at the 
University of Wisconsin who did work in Utah as a medical chemist.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom