Fred Reed

Fred Reed maintains in the following viewpoint that drug treatment programs, while widely viewed as successful, have not been proven to permanently reduce drug abuse. According to Reed, existing studies that support the effectiveness of drug rehabilitation are flawed by unreliable and contradictory data. Reed is a syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Reed, why do many politicians promote rehabilitation?
2. How is the RAND drug treatment study flawed, in Reed’s view?
3. In the author’s opinion, why is it difficult to obtain accurate data on the effectiveness of drug treatment programs"

Are efforts at rehabilitating drug users worthwhile? My guess is that they are not, but a guess is a poor basis

for policy. We need...