Former Reagan Administration Secretary of State and George Shultz has an interesting article on the failure of the War on Drugs: I have been concerned about the drug issue since I became secretary of labor in 1969, my first cabinet position in the Nixon administration…. One day Pat [Moynihan] and I were driving together to […]
Archive | War on Drugs
The Justice Department’s New Memorandum to Federal Prosecutors on Charging Drug Offenders
In my last post, I gave a preliminary assessment of Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent speech on reforming charging policy for low-level drug offenders. I pointed out that whether or not this really marks a major policy change depends in large part on the details outlined in an internal memorandum Holder issued to federal prosecutors. […]
Assessing the Justice Department’s New Policy on Drug Offenders
In a speech to the American Bar Association today, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a potentially important new change in Justice Department policy on charging drug offenders. For reasons noted by Tom Angell of the Marijuana Majority, this is potentially an important step in curbing at least some of the excesses of the War on […]
Using NSA Surveillance Data in the War on Drugs
By Ilya Somin on August 10, 2013 11:45 am in Growth of Government, Privacy, War on Drugs, War on Terror
On Monday, Reuters reported that the Special Operations Division, a secretive unit of the Drug Enforcement Administration is using NSA electronic surveillance data in the War on Drugs, and then deceiving judges and defense lawyers about the source of the evidence when it is used in criminal trials. As various experts quoted by Reuters point […]
Baptists, Bootleggers, and Marijuana Prohibition
Public choice economist Bruce Yandle famously developed the concept of a “baptist-bootlegger coalition” to describe situations in which regulation is supported by a strange bedfellow alliance of groups who favor it for narrowly self-interested reasons and those who support it out of moral or ideological considerations. The paradigmatic example was the way in which Baptists […]
Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop
By Ilya Somin on July 14, 2013 2:35 pm in Criminal Law, Federalism, Political Ignorance, War on Drugs
Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop describes the increasing militarization of America’s police forces over the last several decades, and the immense harm it inflicts. It is the best new book on a law-related topic I have read so far this year. I. The Growth of Militarized Policing. Balko describes the growing use of […]
Upcoming Talk on the War on Drugs before the Northern Virginia Chapter of NORML
On Thursday, July 11, I will be giving a speech on the politics of the War on Drugs before the Northern Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The event is open to the public. The NORML meeting will begin with refreshements at 7:30 PM, and my talk and […]
George Will on Reducing Mandatory Minimum Sentences
George Will recently published an interesting column on a bill that would give judges greater discretion to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and Republican Rand Paul: Seven-term Democrat Pat Leahy’s 38 Senate years have made him Judiciary Committee chairman. Republican Rand Paul is in his third Senate […]
Training Drug-Sniffing Dogs Not to Detect Pot
Since the state of Washington legalized marijuana in a referendum last November, some Washington police departments have been trying to teach their drug-sniffing dogs not to detect pot: When Dusty, a 19-month-old black Labrador, walked past a pipe full of marijuana during a recent police search of a house, he was doing exactly what his […]
A Dog Bites Meat Story: Dogs Sniff Out Meat More Effectively than Drugs
This Vancouver Sun article reports that dogs are much more effective at sniffing out meat than drugs [HT: Steve Bainbridge]: Federal search dogs at international border entry points have a penchant for sniffing out one thing more than anything else: meat. In fact, dogs trained to find animal products turn up meat around 20 times […]
Why maximal enforcement of federal gun laws is not always a good idea
By David Kopel on April 26, 2013 4:27 am in Commerce Clause, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Federalism, Guns, Immigration, Necessary and Proper, Supreme Court, War on Drugs
A common trope of many Second Amendment advocates is to urge more vigorous enforcement of existing federal gun control laws, as the alternative to enacting additional laws. Rhetorically, that’s very effective. But as a policy matter, it is not always a good idea. Consider legislation recently considered by the Senate: The Manchin-Toomey amendment was supported […]
Marijuana and Federalism
More and more states are stepping back from waging war against marijuana, legalizing medicinal use and minor possession, and popular support for decriminalization appears to be growing. Thus far, the federal government has sought to stamp out such efforts. Writing in the Washington Post, Jonathan Rauch suggests Washington should tak a different tack. Squashing the states, […]
Defining “High Seas Felonies” in Another Country
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 18, 2013 9:00 am in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Global Governance/World Government, International Law, National Security, Uncategorized, War on Drugs
A district court recently ruled that Congress’s power to “Define and Punish… Felonies on the High Seas” extends beyond the high seas, to conduct entirely within a foreign country (on dry land), with no U.S. nexus. The case is U.S. v. Carvajal, 2013 WL 619890 (Feb. 20, 2013). The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) […]
Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling, and Guns: The Synergistic Constitutional Effects
By David Kopel on March 16, 2013 4:21 pm in Asset Forfeiture, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Federalism, Guns, Supreme Court, Symposia, Tenth Amendment, War on Drugs
That’s the title of a new article by Trevor Burrus (Cato) and me, forthcoming in a symposium issue on drug policy, from the Albany Government Law Review. The symposium title is “Overdose: The Failure of the US Drug War and Attempts at Legalization.” Here is an excerpt from the introduction: In this Article we discuss the synergistic […]
Hawaii and New Mexico Legislatures Consider Bills to Decriminalize Marijuana Possession
Committees in the Hawaii and New Mexico state legislatures recently approved bills that would decriminalize the possession of marijuana [HT: Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]. Unfortunately, the bills would only decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Nonetheless, they would be a major change from the status quo. If the laws are enacted, […]