Drug law and policy in Germany and the European community:: Recent developments

This paper begins with an outline of the current German drug control system. Drug use and drug control are viewed theoretically as complementary components of a complex social and historical process that integrates sociology, the sociology of law, political science, and social psychology. The German drug control system is viewed as a byproduct of these different disciplines. Within this context, the evolution of pertinent drug laws and their implementation are discussed. Recent developments are viewed as taking place in a series of stages based on three paradigms: (1) criminalization, (2) medicalization, and (3) acceptance. Over time there seems to have been a slow transition from the first to the last of these paradigms, implying that elements of all three approaches have been integrated into various policies and strategies that differ between states and regions of Germany, as well as between different levels of drug policy and drug care.