Legalize This! The Case for Decriminalizing Drugs

by Husak, Douglas N.; McGinn, Colin

• ISBN13: 9781859843208
• ISBN10: 1859843204
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

Recreational drug users (other than those who take harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco) are regularly imprisoned. Nearly half a million drug offenders are incarcerated in US jails, more than the total number of prisoners in 1980 and more than the entire EU prison population. In some states more is spent on maintaining the prison system than on education. Current drug policies lead to immense personal suffering, as well as police corruption, organized crime, and contempt for the law, and make drugs more dangerous because they are illegal and thus not subject to proper controls. Politicians from all sides of the political spectrum are beginning to ask: is it worth it?In arguing that criminalization is unjust, Douglas Husak explodes many of the myths that surround drug use. In some years, more than half of high school seniors take drugs, yet the US is not overrun with drug-crazed addicts. Horror stories of the dangers of drug use abound, but the truth is more prosaic; although recreational drugs are sometimes bad for users, there are between 80 and 90 million US citizens who have used illicit drugs without ill effects.

Author Biography

Douglas Husak is Professor of Philosophy and Law at Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vi
Editor's Introduction	vii
Colin McGinn
Introduction	1	(2)
Understanding Drug Policy	3	(61)
Conflicting anecdotes	3	(7)
Asking the right question	10	(9)
A few bad answers	19	(8)
The concept of a drug	27	(6)
Drug policy preliminaries	33	(11)
Punishment as policy	44	(4)
The right answer: decriminalization of drug use	48	(16)
Reasons for Criminalizing Drug Use	64	(61)
Possible good answers	64	(3)
Drugs and children	67	(15)
Drugs and crime	82	(11)
Drugs and health	93	(16)
Drugs and immorality	109	(16)
Disadvantages of Prohibition	125	(66)
Positive effects of drugs	125	(8)
Negative effects of prohibition	133	(18)
The world of decriminalized drugs	151	(14)
Harms versus benefits	165	(13)
Getting there	178	(13)
Notes	191	(3)
Index	194