Selected Topics in Criminal Law-Seminar: Illlicit Drugs

Highlights the failures of the government's war on marijuana, likening it to 1920s-style prohibition politics, and points to the need for citizen initiatives to change drug policy.

This book presents in understandable terms what the law of constitutional privacy is in the U.S. It deals with issues such as sex, abortion, drug testing, and the right to die. It provides a comprehensive discussion of the historical, philosophical, and legal foundations of the constitutional right to privacy.

Race is clearly a factor in government efforts to control dangerous drugs, but the precise ways that race affects drug laws remain difficult to pinpoint. Illuminating this elusive relationship,Unequal under Law lays out how decades of both manifest and latent racism helped shape a punitive U.S. drug policy whose onerous impact on racial minorities has been willfully ignored by Congress and the courts. Doris Marie Provine's engaging analysis traces the history of race in anti-drug efforts from the temperance movement of the early 1900s to the crack scare of the late twentieth century, showing how campaigns to criminalize drug use have always conjured images of feared minorities. Explaining how alarm over a threatening black drug trade fueled support in the 1980s for a mandatory minimum sentencing scheme of unprecedented severity, Provine contends that while our drug laws may no longer be racist by design, they remain racist in design. Moreover, their racial origins have long been ignored by every branch of government. This dangerous denial threatens our constitutional guarantee of equal protection of law and mutes a much-needed national discussion about institutionalized racism—a discussion that Unequal under Law promises to initiate.

Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard graduate - until he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit. His stint on the other side of the law confirmed his belief that the legal system wasn't working. He gives an insider's view into the easiness with which people are imprisoned, a trend creating more crime than it prevents. Butler offers innovative methods for citizens to resist complicity and introduces the concept of jury nullification as a powerful protest to unjust laws. Chapter 3 is titled, "Justice on Drugs," and melds the author's personal experiences with additional contextual information including a brief history of the issue in the US.

Controlled Substances: Crime, Regulation, and Policy provides a comprehensive overview of the many fascinating issues of law and policy related the criminalization and regulation of illegal drugs. The book begins with materials on the debate about prohibition and its alternatives, with a particular focus on the modern "war on drugs" model of prohibition. After establishing this foundation, the book turns its attention to the drug laws themselves, taking an in depth look at controlled substances offenses, drug sentencing, and the investigation of drug crimes. The book then considers the body of administrative law that governs the classification of controlled substances and the use and distribution of controlled substance for medical purposes. Finally, the book concludes with an overview of international and comparative issues in drug law.

Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Since that time, the country has incarcerated thousands of citizens and spent billions of dollars, and yet the drug problem rolls on. Today, the illegal drug market funds international terrorism, the horrific drug war on the Mexican border, and the senseless violence plaguing our communities, large and small. It is past time for a new direction. This book provides a drug policy framework that will choke off the revenue supporting the illegal drug market. Howard Rahtz outlines a series of drug policy steps buttressed by a historical review of drug policy measures, a review of international efforts against trafficking, and a clear understanding of the dynamics of addiction and its role in facilitating the illegal drug market.

Should marijuana be legalized? The latest Gallup poll reports that exactly half of Americans say "yes"; opinion couldn't be more evenly divided. Marijuana is forbidden by international treaties and by national and local laws across the globe. But those laws are under challenge in several countries. In the U.S., there is no short-term prospect for changes in federal law, but sixteen states allow medical use and recent initiatives to legalize production and non-medical use garnered more than 40% support in four states. California's Proposition 19 nearly passed in 2010, and multiple states are expected to consider similar measures in the years to come. The debate and media coverage surrounding Proposition 19 reflected profound confusion, both about the current state of the world and about the likely effects of changes in the law. In addition, not all supporters of "legalization" agree on what it is they want to legalize: Just using marijuana? Growing it? Selling it? Advertising it? If sales are to be legal, what regulations and taxes should apply? Different forms of legalization might have very different results. Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know® will provide readers with a non-partisan primer about the topic, covering everything from the risks and benefits of using marijuana, to describing the current laws around the drug in the U.S. and abroad. The authors discuss the likely costs and benefits of legalization at the state and national levels and walk readers through the "middle ground" of policy options between prohibition and commercialized production. The authors also consider how marijuana legalization could personally impact parents, heavy users, medical users, drug traffickers, and employers. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Federal domestic drug control policy has evolved over the course of the past century and currently consists of a three-pronged approach to reducing illegal drug use: prevention, substance abuse treatment and enforcement activities. This book examines the war on drugs and drug enforcement efforts; the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign; the background and effectiveness of the drug courts and the legal issues relating to the disposal of dispensed controlled substances.

Drugs in American Society is a sociological introduction to the use of psychoactive substances in the United States that takes the focus of attention on drug use out of the lab and into the street. Throughout the book, personal accounts tell the stories of drug use and the impact that it has on the lives of users. The book also contrasts the image of drugs in society, particularly in the news media, and the reality of drug use itself.

Alcohol, opiates, cocaine and marijuana, among other drugs, have been used and abused for millennia. Prior to the disease model approach to drug addiction, which posits that addiction is a psychological and biological problem and that sufferers are victims, societies had a workable solution: let people consume what they want, and let informal cultural controls reinforce responsible behavior. Legal sanctions were reserved for any use that affected the safety of others. Blowing Smoke proposes an approach to the war on drugs that returns us to the pre-disease-model era. Dr. Reznicek asserts that addiction is not a medical problem to be treated in rehab or by prohibiting substance use. Rather, he debunks the disease model, arguing that it has exacerbated the problem by telling drug abusers that they are not responsible for their behavior, that they are sick, that they are not to blame. He skillfully argues for a new approach to drug use and abuse that requires a shift in the way we fight the war on drugs. Dr. Reznicek provides a new framework for understanding drug abuse: the habit model. Habits are practiced as long as they provide comfort, and are abandoned when they cause pain. The habit model is more consistent with current neuroscientific knowledge and it accounts for the widely observed phenomenon that most substance abusers don't change until they "hit bottom," the point where the consequences of drug use finally outweigh its benefits. Using the habit model, Dr. Reznicek suggests the solution to the drug problem is to turn back the clock, and to take lessons from societies that use social controls and consequences to deal with addiction and drug abuse. He recommends the legalization of drugs for adults, the implementation of social practices to dissuade abusers, and the end to the use of rehab as a way of handling addiction. Blowing Smoke shows how such an iconoclastic approach can work for us today.