OPERATION INTERCEPT

The Multiple Consequences of Public Policy  
By Lawrence A. Gooberman

Contents

• Preface
• Notes
• Acknowledgments

1.  Operation Intercept: The Policy and the Research Problem

• Factors and Assumptions Underlying the New Public Policy
• Operation Intercept: Immediate, Intermediate, and Ultimate Goals
• Purpose of the Study, Applied Theoretical Perspectives, and Hypotheses
• Formulation of the Research Problem and Methodology
• Notes

2.  The Multiple Consequences of Operation Intercept

• The Availability of Marihuana During the Operation Intercept Era
• Summary
• Behavioral Reactions to the General Marihuana Shortage
• Abstaining and Decreased Drug Use
• Switching: The Availability and Use of Drugs
• Other than Marihuana
• Summary
• Attitudinal Responses to the Government Policy
• Summary
• Trusting Attitudes
• Distrustful Attitudes
• Notes

3. Analysis of the Findings: Public Policy and the Drug Abuse Problem

• The Findings
• Additional Evidence Concerning the Unanticipated Consequences of Operation Intercept
• The Social Context of Operation Intercept: An Examination of Contingent Conditions and Traditional Controls in a Decade of Change
• The Ineffectiveness of Traditional Controls and the Formation of the Operation Intercept Policy
• An Analysis of the Differential Effects of Operation Intercept
• Notes

4. Operation Intercept: Past, Present, and Future

• Notes

Appendix

I. Members of the Narcotics, Marihuana and Dangerous Drugs Task Force

II. The Interview Guide

III. Findings From Grosse Pointe Study:  Interview Excerpts

Lawrence A. Gooberman (Ph.D., The City University of New York) is Director of Social Services, Margaretville Memorial and Delaware Valley Hospitals, Delaware County, New York. His primary professional interest is in public policy analysis, particularly in the fields of medical sociology, drug abuse and deviant behavior. Dr. Gooberman has been a National Science Foundation Fellow and has done research for the Vera Institute of Justice and the President's Commission on Obscenity. He has been a New York City Probation Officer and has taught sociology at the State University College at New Paltz and Brooklyn College.