Controlling Drug Use

• Author: Hal Pepinsky,Kevin W. Whiteacre
• Published date: 01 March 2002
• Date: 01 March 2002
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0887403402131002
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

CRIMINALJUSTICEPOLICYREVIEW/March2002Whiteacre,Pepinsky/CONTROLLINGDRUGUSE

Controlling Drug Use

Kevin W. Whiteacre

Hal Pepinsky

Indiana University

This article suggests that society can reduce drug-related harms by encouraging

responsible, healthy drug use. To this end, drug users themselves should be included

in conversationsabout drugs. Though drug users have historically developed and dis-

seminated norms and traditions that have helped people control their drug use, their

voices have generally been excluded from the dominant discourse on drugs. Often,

theyare relegated to the status of objects to be studied, cured,or punished. This results

from the warmaking approach to drugs, characterizedby attempts to eliminate cer-

tain drugs identified by authorities as dangerous. Instead, peacemaking theory sug-

gests that responsible drug use can be encouraged through open conversations that

include everyone willing to share.

We evaluate alternative approaches to controlling drug use from a peace-

making perspective. The evaluationis based on the proposition that we con-

trol drugs better insofar as we promote responsible drug use. That proposi-

tion is built on the theory that one of us is developing on how to build safer

rather than more isolated and violent human relations (Pepinsky, 2000).

Within Pepinsky’speacemaking theory, the building of safer human rela-

tions, including our relations with substances and the rest of our environ-

ment, rests first and foremost on honesty of human sharing of feelings and

beliefs about conduct at hand. Youcannot build security or credible reality

if your conduct is based on lies, hypocrisy,and other pretense of doing what

must be done for control’ssake. The primary human quality that can emerge

only from honest dialogue is responsibility. We can trust and let down our

guard with one another insofar as we see that each member of our social cir-

cle is making his or her own honest choices as to how to respond to how he

or she feels. Holding people responsible is a contradiction in terms, for by

managing their choices people take away the choices they can make for

themselves, taking over responsibility for others’ lives.

We share with radical feminists likeBrock-Utne (1985, 1989) the prem-

ise that the ultimate historical template for taking people’s responsibility

21

Criminal Justice PolicyReview, Volume13, Number 1, March 2002 21-31

© 2002 Sage Publications