New Poll Shows 58% Support Marijuana Legalization
A recent poll conducted by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling indicates that 58% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. This is consistent with other recent survey data showing that...
View ArticlePolitifact Fact-Check Fail: Drug Policy Edition
At Reason.com, Mike Riggs takes apart another Politifact fact-check fail, this one concerning President Obama’s drug policies. [...] The post Politifact Fact-Check Fail: Drug Policy Edition appeared...
View ArticleReducing Gun Violence By Legalizing Drugs
In the wake of the Newtown massacre, there has, understandably, been a new wave of advocacy of policy proposals aimed at preventing future incidents of the same kind. However, gun violence in schools...
View ArticleGary Becker and Kevin Murphy on the Failure of the War on Drugs
In this Wall Street Journal column, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and his colleague Kevin Murphy do an excellent job of summarizing the failures of the War on Drugs: President Richard Nixon...
View ArticleThe War on Drugs, Overcriminalization, and the Rise of Militarized Police Raids
Deroy Murdock has an interesting National Review column describing the rise of abusive, military-style police raids: Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort...
View ArticleHawaii and New Mexico Legislatures Consider Bills to Decriminalize Marijuana...
Committees in the Hawaii and New Mexico state legislatures recently approved bills that would decriminalize the possession of marijuana [HT: Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]....
View ArticleSex, Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling, and Guns: The Synergistic Constitutional Effects
That’s the title of a new article by Trevor Burrus (Cato) and me, forthcoming in a symposium issue on drug policy, from the Albany Government Law Review. The symposium title is “Overdose: The Failure...
View ArticleDefining “High Seas Felonies” in Another Country
A district court recently ruled that Congress’s power to “Define and Punish… Felonies on the High Seas” extends beyond the high seas, to conduct entirely within a foreign country (on dry land), with no...
View ArticleMarijuana and Federalism
More and more states are stepping back from waging war against marijuana, legalizing medicinal use and minor possession, and popular support for decriminalization appears to be growing. Thus far, the...
View ArticleWhy maximal enforcement of federal gun laws is not always a good idea
A common trope of many Second Amendment advocates is to urge more vigorous enforcement of existing federal gun control laws, as the alternative to enacting additional laws. Rhetorically, that’s very...
View ArticleA Dog Bites Meat Story: Dogs Sniff Out Meat More Effectively than Drugs
This Vancouver Sun article reports that dogs are much more effective at sniffing out meat than drugs [HT: Steve Bainbridge]: Federal search dogs at international border entry points have a penchant for...
View ArticleTraining Drug-Sniffing Dogs Not to Detect Pot
Since the state of Washington legalized marijuana in a referendum last November, some Washington police departments have been trying to teach their drug-sniffing dogs not to detect pot: When Dusty, a...
View ArticleGeorge Will on Reducing Mandatory Minimum Sentences
George Will recently published an interesting column on a bill that would give judges greater discretion to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator...
View ArticleUpcoming Talk on the War on Drugs before the Northern Virginia Chapter of NORML
On Thursday, July 11, I will be giving a speech on the politics of the War on Drugs before the Northern Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The event...
View ArticleRadley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop
Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop describes the increasing militarization of America’s police forces over the last several decades, and the immense harm it inflicts. It is the best new book on a...
View ArticleBaptists, Bootleggers, and Marijuana Prohibition
Public choice economist Bruce Yandle famously developed the concept of a “baptist-bootlegger coalition” to describe situations in which regulation is supported by a strange bedfellow alliance of groups...
View ArticleUsing NSA Surveillance Data in the War on Drugs
On Monday, Reuters reported that the Special Operations Division, a secretive unit of the Drug Enforcement Administration is using NSA electronic surveillance data in the War on Drugs, and then...
View ArticleAssessing the Justice Department’s New Policy on Drug Offenders
In a speech to the American Bar Association today, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a potentially important new change in Justice Department policy on charging drug offenders. For reasons noted...
View ArticleThe Justice Department’s New Memorandum to Federal Prosecutors on Charging...
In my last post, I gave a preliminary assessment of Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent speech on reforming charging policy for low-level drug offenders. I pointed out that whether or not this really...
View ArticleGeorge Shultz on the Failure of the War on Drugs
Former Reagan Administration Secretary of State and George Shultz has an interesting article on the failure of the War on Drugs: I have been concerned about the drug issue since I became secretary of...
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