MacCoun, R., Reuter, P., Kahan, J., & Saiger, A. (1993). Drug policies and problems: The promise and pitfalls of cross-national comparisons. In N. Heather, A. Wodak, E. Nadelmann, & P. O'Hare (Eds.), Psychoactive drugs and harm reduction: From faith to science (pp. 103-117), London: Whurr Publishers.

This is a brief essay about what cross-national comparisons can tell us about the relationship between drug policies and drug-related problems, and about some of the difficulties involved in making such comparisons. This essay reflects the authors' thinking and experience roughly halfway through a three-year cross-national study comparing drug policies and problem indicators across a number of Western industrialized nations. For reasons discussed, it would be premature to present preliminary statistical results in this essay; instead, the authors hope to stimulate curiosity about the experiences of other countries, and sensitivity as to the hazards of causal cross-national inference.