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.