Details for The War on Drugs: Promoting stigma and discrimination

Author: Transform Drug Policy Foundation

Despite the lack of evidence that more punitive drug laws significantly deter drug use, criminalisation remains the primary weapon in the war on drugs. But using the criminal justice system to solve a public health problem has proven not only ineffective, but also socially corrosive. It promotes stigmatisation and discrimination, the burden of which is largely carried by already marginalised or vulnerable populations, many of whom the policy is nominally designed to protect.