Home > Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior > National Commission On Marihuana And Drug Abuse

In response to a substantial increase in drug-use patterns in American society during the 1960s and a swirling controversy about changing the marijuana laws to legalize the substances, in 1970, the U.S. Congress established the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. The commission was directed to conduct a two-year study, the first on MARIJUANA and the second on "the causes of drug abuse and their relative significance." The commission was composed of thirteen members, four appointed by the Congress (two each from the Senate and the House) and nine appointed by the president. The chair of the commission was Raymond P. Shafer, former governor of Pennsylvania, and the vice chair was Dana L. Farnsworth, M.D., the director of Student Health Services at Harvard University.

In March 1972, the commission issued its first report, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, which recommended decriminalization of possession of marijuana for personal use. The commission's final report, Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective, was issued in March 1973. The 500-page report was supplemented by 1,000 pages of appendices. In its report, the commission summarized its findings concerning the patterns of drug use in the United States, psychosocial and institutional influences on drug-using behavior, and the social impact of drug dependence and drug-induced behavior. The commission also proposed a framework for policymaking and made specific recommendations in the areas of legal regulation, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and research.

The most enduring impact of the commission's final report probably lies in its efforts to revise the vocabulary of the drug field. The commission insisted that ALCOHOL be recognized as the major "drug" problem in the United States; it recommended that the term "drug abuse" be eschewed in favor of more descriptive terminology concerning drug-using behavior. For example, the commission developed a typology of drug-using behavior (experimental, recreational, situational, intensified, and compulsive use) and emphasized the need for different social responses for different patterns of use. In another important contribution, the commission fostered the development of information systems for monitoring changes in drug-using behavior in U.S. society, including national surveys of drug-using behavior among high-school students and in the general population.

The commission strongly endorsed the national treatment strategy, codified in the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1972, which aimed to create a national network of treatment services and to establish appropriate incentives for people to seek these services voluntarily. In addition, the commission sought to reorient the rule of the criminal law in implementing a policy of discouraging drug use. In the short term, the commission concluded, the criminal sanction should be retained, but should be utilized primarily as leverage for entry into prevention and treatment programs. In regard to government organization, the commission recommended that the law-enforcement and public-health dimensions of national drug-abuse prevention policy be combined into a single agency.