Beau Kilmer, Eric Sterling, Robert DuPont, Nora Volkow discuss cannabis legalization on the Diane Rehm show.
Beau Kilmer, Eric Sterling, Robert DuPont, and Nora Volkow discuss cannabis legalization on the Diane Rehm show. Volkow’s presentation is a masterpiece of jumping to conclusions. She assumes that the net effects of cannabis legalization are negative, without even mentioning the costs of prohibition (arrest can be hazardous to your health) or the possibility that cannabis might substitute for alcohol. DuPont jumps from the correct obsevation that alcohol use and cannabis use are positively correlated across individuals to the unjustified conclusion that they are complements. Kilmer is much more judicious.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman