Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding
The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse
Chapter V
marihuana and social policy
Implementing The Discouragement Policy
Choice of this social control policy does not automatically dictate any particular
legal implementation. As we noted in Chapter 1, there is a disturbing tendency among
participants in the marihuana debate to assume that a given statement of the drug's
effects, its number of users or its social impact compels a particular statutory scheme.
Law does not operate in a social vacuum, and it is only one of the institutional
mechanisms which society can utilize to implement its policies. Consequently, the
evaluation of alternative legal approaches demands not only logic but also a delicate
assessment of the mutual relationship between the law and other institutions of social
control, such as the church, the family and the school.
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