Social behavior, public policy, and nonharmful drug use

A body of research conducted over several decades has established that a considerable proportion of regular users of heroin, cocaine, and other psychoactive drugs continue to function effectively at work and in other areas of social life. Yet American policy has been predicated on assumptions of a universal course of drug use leading to dependency and dysfunctional behavior. A rational drug policy would be shaped in light of a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between drug use and socially adaptive and maladaptive behavior.