Public Health and Drugs: Why is Policy so Persistently Irrational?

Drug control is one of public health’s most conspicuous failures, a glaring exception to more rational policies infields like immunization. Despite occasional disagreements over means, such as oral versus injectable polio vaccine, officials share a consistent goal: safely vaccinating as many people against as many serious infections as possible. They don’t include measles and exclude mumps. Yet drug policy remains fractious and, given the consequences of alcohol and tobacco use, seemingly irrational