The Making of a Drug-Free America: Programs That Work

Revised and updated, this book argues that Americans need not give in to despair when it comes to the persistent problem of drug abuse. Falco showcases effective prevention, treatment, and law enforcement strategies from around the country. This information will shape the debate in 1994 midterm elections. Includes a foreword by Michael Crichton.

In a nation looking for ideas on the issue of illegal drugs, Mathea Falco offers a sweeping set. Falco, a lawyer who served in the State Department of the Carter Administration's anti-narcotics bureau and advised the 1992 Clinton campaign on drug policy, spent five years trying to find answers to drug question by visiting schools, treatments centers and clinics--places where a large part of the drug is being waged. Her proposals are too lengthy to list here, though it is fair to say "reducing demand, changing attitudes and engaging citizen participation" in her mind is better than an emphasis on the criminal justice system. Money earmarked for prisons should instead go to treatment centers, she maintains, and the United States must adopt and attitude of community restoration rather than combat.