The Forgotten Victims of the War on Drugs: An Analysis of U.S. Drug Policy and Reform From a Child Well-Being Perspective

When assessing the impact of U.S. drug laws on society, one group is often overlooked: children. This policy analysis reviews the data on parental drug involvement, incarceration, and problems of re-entry in order to understand how drug legislation affects children. From this empirical review emerge 10 central "risk to children" themes that provide criteria for conceptualizing and evaluating solutions. The article then presents five types of policy reforms that states have recently enacted and analyzes each according to its ability to mitigate harms to children along the 10 themes. No single drug policy reform effort ameliorates all risk themes, and evidence-based programing for these children is needed to bolster the impact of legislative reforms. Concluding remarks discuss the multiple implications for social work advocacy, practice, and research.