Academic

MacCoun & Martin on Drug Prohibition

By Lawrence Solum

Robert MacCoun and Karin D. Martin (University of California, Berkeley - The Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy and University of California, Berkeley - The Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy) have posted Drug Use and Drug Policy in a Prohibition Regime. Here is the abstract:

Prohibition makes some drug use and drug selling a crime by statute, but licit drugs like alcohol are also associated with criminality in myriad ways. Within a prohibition regime, it is difficult but important to distinguish a drug's "intrinsic" psychopharmacological harms from the harms created or exacerbated by prohibition and its enforcement. Rather than debating the merits of legalization (see MacCoun & Reuter, 2001), we evaluate current epidemiological patterns and mainstream policy instruments within the US prohibition regime, but we go beyond the standard criterion of prevalence reduction by considering harm reduction and quantity reduction as well. We close by speculating about some emerging challenges, including the "thizzle" scene and the future of performance enhancing drugs.

Goodness, hyphy talk in an SSRN abstract.  What will those hip Berkeley do next?

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).