War on Drugs—Is Legalization an Answer?

The War on Drugs is a federal initiative begun by President Nixon in the 1970s. It now consumes an estimated $75 billion of taxpayer money each year, is responsible for nearly half of today's U.S. prison population, and occupies an estimated 50 percent of the trial time of our judicial system.

Despite all this effort and expense, some claim there has been no significant progress, nor do many experts see any significant hope for progress in the near term.

There is a wide range of choice in drug-policy options to deal with this enduring issue, including free-market and zero-tolerance approaches. These options fall under the concept of harm reduction.

This concept holds that drug policies need to focus on reducing crime, whether engendered by drugs or by the prohibition of drugs. And it holds that disease and death can be diminished even among people who can't, or won't, stop taking drugs.

This pragmatic approach is followed in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, and parts of Germany, Austria, Britain, and a growing number of other countries.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity (details) to help your students learn more about the U.S. "War on Drugs—Is Legalization the Answer?"

This and all ProQuest model BookCarts (lesson planning PDF) are customizable, and offer complete, one-stop, inquiry-based learning activities for students. (See our short BookCart video segment inside the all-new eLibrary training video.)

Traditional "research time" often involves repetitive and largely non-productive free-Web 'searching' followed by evaluating the relevancy of hundreds or thousands of search results.

Our BookCarts reduce the time lost in searching and evaluating, and reinvest that time on the essentials of critical thinking, problem solving, and presentation of conclusions. BookCarts are easily updated for topics/issues that may be repeatedly assigned each school year, all inside your existing subscription.

Each Cart provides students with:

• Essential questions that help them develop 21st-century critical thinking skills
• Directions that guide them in knowing what to do
• Connections to relevant print resource call numbers
• A 21st-century information literacy standard
• ProQuest models they can use for written reports and presentations.

You won't find this unique combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in one place in any other K-12 online reference resource.

Our complete listing of more than 800 ProQuest Carts by curriculum area is available for you to review, then copy this or any other Carts that support your school's curriculum needs for effective inquiry-based learning activities.

Each Title is hyperlinked to a ProQuest Cart. Options for copying and editing, and will be provided automatically when you are logged onto the eLibrary Teacher Edition.

• Open your eLibrary Teacher Edition by clicking here.
• Click BookCart Admin tab at the top.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab (800 ProQuest models).
• Type "War on Drugs" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the Actions column to the right of this title.
• Click Return to My Local Carts tab to end the copying process.

Edit your new Cart to customize it for your students:

• Click the new BookCart Title—it has "Copy of" as its prefix.
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title.
• Type your name in the Author boxes.
• Type your email address in the email box.
• Optional: Edit the essential questions and any other text in the DESCRIPTIONS box.
• Scroll down and click Save button at bottom.
• Return to My Local Carts.
• Your edited Cart is ready for students to use when they click the BookCart tab in eLibrary.

Assign students a report of at least 150 words or a presentation of at least seven slides or two minutes on the controversy of legalization of drugs. Students should cite at least three resources and address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can substitute or add others):

• What is the current strategy in the war on drugs in the U.S.?
• Is the strategy working: Why or why not?
• What are the advantages of legalizing drugs?
• What are the disadvantages of legalizing drugs?
• What would you do if you were in charge of the War on Drugs and why?

Type "legalization of drugs" in the Search box.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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