September, 2008

Best of the Blogs: Responsible Drug Use

Here are some thought-provoking excerpts from around the blogosphere commenting on this month’s edition of Cato Unbound.
Drug Law Blog: Erowid Founders on Responsible Psychoactive Use and The Cato Debate Continues:

I’ve always found Erowid to be an extremely interesting and remarkable website, not simply because it contains so much information about a somewhat [...]

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Politicians with Pot Problems

by Jacob Sullum
The Conversation
September 22nd, 2008

To clarify my analogies between taxing alcohol on the one hand and taxing cars, firearms, or sex on the other: In all these cases, some users — drunken drivers, reckless (but sober) drivers, violent criminals, promiscuous disease carriers — cause harm to others. But in my view, it is not fair to tax all users [...]

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Public Health Promotion is OK

by Jonathan Caulkins
The Conversation
September 22nd, 2008

The Erowids thought I was unclear about my position “with regard to the government actively promoting misunderstandings and inaccuracies about disapproved drugs and their use,” so I will be explicit. I think it OK (meaning not unconstitutional and not outrageous if the majority want it) for the government to promote health and well being [...]

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Drug Information Isn’t Just for “Druggies”

by Earth and Fire Erowid
The Conversation
September 22nd, 2008

Jonathan Caulkins sketches a little of the history of recent drug education policy in the United States, but it’s not clear what position he takes with regard to the government actively promoting misunderstandings and inaccuracies about disapproved drugs and their use. While Jonathan states that “accurate information about drugs is generally preferable,” [emphasis added] [...]

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Against the Ban on Cannabis Smoking; for the Ban on Cannabis Commerce

by Mark Kleiman
The Conversation
September 22nd, 2008

To be justified, a law needs to be beneficial in its results — net of the costs of enforcement — and a reasonable restriction on liberty. Compared to a law that allowed individuals to grow their own cannabis for personal consumption or gratis distribution, the current cannabis laws probably have quite modest impacts on [...]

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25 Million Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

by Jonathan Caulkins
The Conversation
September 22nd, 2008

Jacob argues that the fact that so many people have violated a drug law “ought to change the legal approach to marijuana at least.” I’ve never understood that logic. The household survey estimates that 25 million Americans used marijuana in the last year, but the same survey estimates that 30 million drove a vehicle while [...]

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Pot Smokers for Prohibition

by Jacob Sullum
The Conversation
September 19th, 2008

Jonathan is right that, according to the government’s survey data, “current” (i.e., past-month) use of illegal drugs is relatively rare. Still, something done by one in 12 Americans (about 20 million people)—or one in seven (36 million), if we look at past-year use—is a significant phenomenon that involves many otherwise law-abiding people. (We should also [...]

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Be Realistic about How Much Information Alone Changes Behavior

by Jonathan Caulkins
The Conversation
September 19th, 2008

I am happy to agree with the Erowids that accurate information about drugs is generally preferable, but we should be realistic about how much accurate information alone will accomplish. I’ll elaborate in a moment about some history of information-only campaigns in drug prevention, but I do not think the limitations are unique to drug [...]

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Prohibition and Black-and-White Thinking Go Hand in Hand

by Jacob Sullum
The Conversation
September 18th, 2008

“For the purposes of our primary thesis about the importance of accurate information and our hypothesis that more robust education about psychoactives can lead to more responsibility over time,” the Erowids write, “drug control policies are moot.” I agree with pretty much everything the Erowids say regarding the importance of accurate information, but I think [...]

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Realistic Policy Proposals Versus Hypotheticals

by Jonathan Caulkins
The Conversation
September 18th, 2008

A couple of points bear mentioning with respect to the exchange between Mark and Jacob.
First, increasing a tax, such as an alcohol tax, should not be thought of as happening in isolation. Unless the costs of administering the tax eat up all the revenue (not credible in this case since it is just increasing [...]

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Mark, Mill, and Me on Sin Taxes

by Jacob Sullum
The Conversation
September 18th, 2008

If Mark “can think of no more powerful argument for maintaining the existing drug prohibitions than the almost universal opposition on the part of people who call themselves ‘drug policy reformers’ to any effective action to control the damage done by the currently licit drugs,” it sounds like he’s ready to support legalization. My impression, [...]

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Not an Argument for Legalization

by Earth and Fire Erowid
The Conversation
September 18th, 2008

It is surprising and unfortunate that Jonathan Caulkins chose to read our essay as an argument for “legalization,” as it neither included any calls for major changes in current drug control policies nor did it lay out an idealized drug policy for the future. The suggestion we are making, instead, is for providing accurate, pragmatic [...]

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Reductio ad Absurdum

by Mark Kleiman
The Conversation
September 18th, 2008

I can think of no more powerful argument for maintaining the existing drug prohibitions than the almost universal opposition on the part of people who call themselves “drug policy reformers” to any effective action to control the damage done by the currently licit drugs.
Every year, more than 20,000 Americans die as the result of [...]

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