 Peter Bourne's drug policy and the perils of a public health ethic, 1976-1978C.D. Clark and E. Dufton American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 2, 283-292 Abstract: As President Jimmy Carter's advisor for health issues, Peter Bourne promoted a rational and comprehensive drug strategy that combined new supply-side efforts to prevent drug use with previously established demand-side addiction treatment programs. Using a public health ethic that allowed the impact of substances on overall population health to guide drug control, Bourne advocated for marijuana decriminalization as well as increased regulations for barbiturates. A hostile political climate, a series of rumors, and pressure from both drug legalizers and prohibitionists caused Bourne to resign in disgrace in 1978. We argue that Bourne's critics used his own public health framework to challenge him, describe the health critiques that contributed to Bourne's resignation, and present the story of his departure as a cautionary tale for today's drug policy reformers. Keywords: cannabis; prescription drug, drug legislation; ethics; health care policy; history; human; public health; Substance-Related Disorders; United States, Cannabis; Health Policy; History, 20th Century; Humans; Legislation, Drug; Prescription Drugs; Public Health; Substance-Related Disorders; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302233_9 Access Statistics for this article American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association |
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