The Legalization of Drugs
The Legalization of Drugs

Author: Doug Husak

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-08-29

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1139445855

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In the United States today, the use or possession of many drugs is a criminal offense. Can these criminal laws be justified? What are the best reasons to punish or not to punish drug users? These are the fundamental issues debated in this book by two prominent philosophers of law. Douglas Husak argues in favor of drug decriminalization, by clarifying the meaning of crucial terms, such as legalize, decriminalize, and drugs; and by identifying the standards by which alternative drug policies should be assessed. He critically examines the reasons typically offered in favor of our current approach and explains why decriminalization is preferable. Peter de Marneffe argues against drug legalization, demonstrating why drug prohibition, especially the prohibition of heroin, is necessary to protect young people from self-destructive drug use. If the empirical assumptions of this argument are sound, he reasons, drug prohibition is perfectly compatible with our rights to liberty.

How to Legalize Drugs
How to Legalize Drugs

Author: Jefferson M. Fish

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 712

ISBN-13:

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No wonder the war on drugs is being lost: the warriors' arrows are all pointed in the wrong directions. The black-market-driven effects of prohibition, which include crime and its spiraling scourges as well as death and disease, are overall counterproductive. Ironically, the severe penalties intended to halt serious abuse intimidate the occasional user but not the real target, whose desperate search for consolation in drugs is more result than cause of the misery of marginalization. The rationale for reform, most commonly rooted in a cost/benefit comparison (public harm versus public health) or in the libertarian argument, comprises the first part of this persuasive plea for a paradigm shift and paves the way for the second, on approaches to legalizing drugs.

Legalize This!
Legalize This!

Author: Douglas N. Husak

Publisher: Verso

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781859846636

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Explodes many of the myths that surround drug use.

Should All Drugs Be Legalized?
Should All Drugs Be Legalized?

Author: Mattha Busby

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2022-07-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500295689

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The Big Idea series looks at the use of drugs in human society in this timely reexamination of the debate over the legalization of drugs. Combining a unique visual approach with carefully constructed narrative text, this entry in the Big Idea series provides a survey of the history of drug use, a review of the impact of the War on Drugs, an appraisal of the effects of legal versus illegal drugs, and an evaluation of the impact of the decriminalization of drugs. According to archaeological and historical records, ethanol in the form of beer in Sumer and wine in Egypt were first used recreationally at least thirteen thousand years ago, while psychotropic drugs have been used for thousands of years, mainly for religious purposes. This book sets out the history of the use of drugs since the Neolithic age, and explores the evolution of recreational drug use from the mid-eighteenth century on. It considers the danger and social impact of heavy use of legal alcohol or nicotine in contrast to the hazards to health and society associated with illegal drugs. It evaluates the effects of the fifty-year global War on Drugs on the criminal production and trafficking of drugs on the black market and on the abuse, health, and imprisonment of end users. Finally, it argues for the decriminalization of all drugs and the state regulation of the drug market, with suitable controls and regulation for each drug type.

Marijuana Legalization
Marijuana Legalization

Author: Jonathan Paul Caulkins

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0190262400

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Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know(R) provides readers with a non-partisan primer covering everything from the risks and benefits of using marijuana to what is happening with marijuana laws around the world. This book serves as the price of admission for any serious discussion about marijuana legalization.

Drugs and Drug Policy
Drugs and Drug Policy

Author: Mark A.R. Kleiman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-07-13

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0199831386

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While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs, explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism. Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What are we going to do about drugs? In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know®. They begin, by defining "drugs," examining how they work in the brain, discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the ugly politics that surround the issue. Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Evaluating Gun Policy
Evaluating Gun Policy

Author: Jens Ludwig

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2004-05-13

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9780815753377

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Compared with other developed nations, the United States is unique in its high rates of both gun ownership and murder. Although widespread gun ownership does not have much effect on the overall crime rate, gun use does make criminal violence more lethal and has a unique capacity to terrorize the public. Gun crime accounts for most of the costs of gun violence in the United States, which are on the order of $100 billion per year. But that is not the whole story. Guns also provide recreational benefits and sometimes are used virtuously in fending off or forestalling criminal attacks. Given that guns may be used for both good and ill, the goal of gun policy in the United States has been to reduce the flow of guns to the highest-risk groups while preserving access for most people. There is no lack of opinions on policies to regulate gun commerce, possession, and use, and most policy proposals spark intense controversy. Whether the current system achieves the proper balance between preserving access and preventing misuse remains the subject of considerable debate. Evaluating Gun Policy provides guidance for a pragmatic approach to gun policy using good empirical research to help resolve conflicting assertions about the effects of guns, gun control, and law enforcement. The chapters in this volume do not conform neatly to the claims of any one political position. The book is divided into five parts. In the first section, contributors analyze the connections between rates of gun ownership and two outcomes of particular interest to society—suicide and burglary. Regulating ownership is the focus of the second section, where contributors investigate the consequences a large-scale combined gun ban and buy-back program in Australia, as well as the impact of state laws that prohibit gun ownership to those with histories of domestic violence. The third section focuses on efforts to restrict gun carrying and includes a critical examination of efforts in Pit

Legalizing Drugs
Legalizing Drugs

Author: Steve Rolles

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 9781771133203

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The question is no longer if we should end the war on drugs but how we do it. This No-Nonsense Guide counts the human and financial cost of fifty years of drug war - and proceeds to outline a better way, looking at where drug law reform is already working, how to overcome the obstacles to reform, and what a post-drug war world might look like.

An Analysis of Marijuana Policy
An Analysis of Marijuana Policy

Author: National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1982-01-01

Total Pages: 55

ISBN-13:

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Defenders of marijuana use may seize on the ambiguity or absence of evidence for such damage and ignore any other effects on education or safety; those opposed to marijuana use may emphasize the possibility of chronic disease that is suggested by some laboratory findings and ignore the social, political, and economic costs of fighting a well-established custom. The Committee wishes to make clear what it regards as the limits of this report for the selection of policy alteratives. Scientific judgment can estimate the prevalence of different kinds of use, risks to health, economic costs, and the like under current policies and can try to project such estimates for new policies. It can come to some conclusions based on those estimates. But selection of an alternative is always a value-governed choice, which can ultimately be made only by the political process.

Undoing Drugs
Undoing Drugs

Author: Daniel K. Benjamin

Publisher:

Published: 1991-12-08

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13:

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Attempting to avoid the pitfalls of both blanket legislation and all-out federal prohibition, the authors argue for a drugs programme that eliminates the federal government's monopoly on drug policy and elevates the drug-enforcement powers of the 50 states and their local jurisdictions.