Is it time to call a cease-fire in the war on drugs? In Drug War Deadlock: The Policy Battle Continues (Hoover Institution Press, 2005), edited by Hoover research fellow Laura E. Huggins, the history, moral implications, legal issues, and possibility of reforming current drug laws are examined. "This approach does not attempt to tackle every issue relating to illegal drugs," Huggins said, "rather the aim is to offer the reader a concise view of divergent viewpoints pertaining to drug policy."
Part one of this volume probes the history of America's drug war from both sides of the battlefield and outlines the U.S. drug policy. The objective of part two is to delve into the significant divide over the moral implication of drug use. This section also investigates such questions as whether adults have a moral right to use drugs for recreational purposes.
The important question of the nature and limits of power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual is addressed in part three. In part four the arguments get more specific by narrowing in on three avenues for drug policy reform.
Part five explores the debate over marijuana prohibition. Part six explores the pros and cons of Europe's more liberal drug policies and how they might be applied to the United States. The final part presents options on how to address the nation's drug problems and ending the war on drugs.
Contributors include Howard Abadinsky, St. John's University; Scott Barbour, Greenhaven Press; Ronald Bayer, Columbia University; William J. Bennett, Claremont Institute; Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato Institute; Lou Dobbs, CNN; David Duncan, Duncan and Associates; Milton Friedman, Hoover Institution; Bruce D. Glasscock, Plano, Texas, police department; Asa Hutchinson, former administrator of Drug Enforcement Agency; James A. Inciardi, University of Delaware; Bruce D. Johnson, Special Populations Research; Charles Levinthal, Hofstra University; Robert J. MacCoun, University of California, Berkeley; Duane McBride, Andrews University; Joseph D. McNamara, Hoover Institution; Ethan A. Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance; Robert Peterson, attorney; Peter Reuter, University of Maryland; John Jay Rouse, Sacred Heart University, retired; Thomas Szasz, State University of New York Health Science Center; John Stossel, ABC News; Yvonne Terry, University of Michigan; John P. Walters, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; and James Q. Wilson, University of California, Los Angeles.
Drug War Deadlock: The Policy Battle Continues
edited by Laura Huggins
ISBN: 0817946527 $15.00
302 Pages September 2005
