Rethinking drug policy: an integrity preserving compromise position

Abstract

The "War on Drugs" has been raging for twenty years without resolution. This work attempts to provide a compromise position between the prohibitionists and the legalizers that preserves the integrity of both positions. This compromise position is necessary to resolve issues of racism, deprivation of civil rights, and other injustices inherent in the policy, on which I elaborate. I show a moral compromise with integrity is not possible without a full elaboration of the moral underpinnings of both sides to the conflict, which is provided. I extend Martin Benjamin's theory of moral compromise with integrity, as found in Splitting the Difference, to the public policy arena. I offer a compromise solution to the drug policy question, and answer theoretical objections, including establishing criteria of integrity-preservation, which I show are met by my compromise position.