id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
ihlr-22880	El-Sabawi, Taleed	What Motivates Legislators to Act:: Problem Definition & the Opioid Epidemic, A Case Study	2018	38	.pdf	application/pdf	18610	924	51	WHAT MOTIVATES LEGISLATORS TO ACT 195 medical and public health methods for both treating and preventing problem drug use, would have been more effective at addressing problem drug use.35 Despite the empirical evidence, criminal justice solutions were supported by actors who depicted the drug user or populations at risk for drug use as persons of weak character, who could not help but give in to the seduction of a high, no matter the cost.36 Historically, the dominant37 problem definition38 in drug policy has been that the drug user’s poor moral character and his inability to refrain from engaging in hedonistic behavior caused his drug use.39 This causal story40 limited the policy alternatives to legislative solutions that included punishment and supply reduction—solutions aimed at punishing the drug user’s bad behavior and keeping drugs away from him to decrease the likelihood of his use. Further, what motivated legislators to act to change drug policy given their inaction in other policy areas?	cache/ihlr-22880.pdf	txt/ihlr-22880.txt