The place of drugs in American society is a problem more apt to evoke
diatribe than dialog. With the support of the Na- tional Science
Foundation's program on Ethics and Values in Science and Technology, and
the National Endowment for the Humanities' program on Science,
Technology, and Human Values, * The Hastings Center was able to sponsor
such dialog as part of a major research into the ethics of drug use that
spanned two years. We assembled a Research Group from leaders in the
scientific, medical, legal, and policy com- munities, leavened with
experts in applied ethics, and brought them together several times a
year to discuss the moral, legal and social issues posed by
nontherapeutic drug use. At times we also called on other experts when
we needed certain issues clarified. We did not try to reach a consensus,
yet several broad areas of agreement emerged: That our society's
response to nontherapeutic drug use has been irrational and
inconsistent; that our attempts at control have been clumsy and
ill-informed; that many complex moral values are entwined in the debate
and cannot be reduced to a simple conflict between individual liberty
and state paternalism. Of course each paper should be read as the
statement of that particular author or authors. The views expressed in
this book do not necessarily represent the views of The Hastings Center,
the National Science Foundation, or the National En- dowment for the
Humanities.