Deroy Murdock has an interesting National Review column describing the rise of abusive, military-style police raids: Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort in routine law enforcement. From food-safety cases to mundane financial matters, battle-ready public employees are turning America into the United States of SWAT. FBI agents and U.S. marshals […]
Archive | War on Drugs
Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy on the Failure of the War on Drugs
In this Wall Street Journal column, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and his colleague Kevin Murphy do an excellent job of summarizing the failures of the War on Drugs: President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs” in 1971. The expectation then was that drug trafficking in the United States could be greatly reduced in […]
Reducing Gun Violence By Legalizing Drugs
In the wake of the Newtown massacre, there has, understandably, been a new wave of advocacy of policy proposals aimed at preventing future incidents of the same kind. However, gun violence in schools is already extremely rare, with the average child far more at risk of dying in a car accident or backyard pool accident […]
Politifact Fact-Check Fail: Drug Policy Edition
At Reason.com, Mike Riggs takes apart another Politifact fact-check fail, this one concerning President Obama’s drug policies.
New Poll Shows 58% Support Marijuana Legalization
A recent poll conducted by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling indicates that 58% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. This is consistent with other recent survey data showing that public opinion is moving in a pro-legalization direction. In 2011, a Gallup poll showed 50% support for legalization for the first time. As with other recent […]
Drug Treaties Do Not Empower Congress To Override Or Repeal State Referenda Legalizing Marijuana
In a press release last week, the President of the International Narcotics Control Board, Raymond Yans, asserted that the recent referenda legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington “are in violation of the international drug control treaties.” He is almost certainly wrong about that; federal drug laws keep the United States in compliance with such treaties […]
The GOP’s Pot Problem
Support for the decriminalization of marijuana, whether for medicinal or recreational use, is on the rise as state after state votes to lower (if not eliminate) restrictions on cannabis possession and use. The federal government’s response, particularly under the Obama Administration, has been to step up enforcement efforts. And what is the GOP response? Falling […]
IQ2US Debate: Legalize Drugs
Intelligence Squared is hosting a debate on the motion “Legalize Drugs” tomorrow evening, Wednesday, November 14, 6:45-8:30pm, at the Kaufman Center, 129 West 67th Street (btw Broadway and Amsterdam), New York City. For the motion: Nick Gillespie, Editor-in-Chief of Reason.com and Reason TV, and Prof. Paul Butler, my colleague at Georgetown Law. Against the motion: […]
Colorado and Washington Vote to Legalize Marijuana
In a significant political breakthrough for opponents of the War on Drugs, Colorado and Washington voters passed referenda legalizing marijuana tonight. To my knowledge, these wins are the first time that any state has passed a referendum initiative that legalizes marijuana generally, as opposed to only for medical purposes. For reasons I outlined here, this […]
Some Key Referenda to Watch
By Ilya Somin on November 5, 2012 4:58 pm in Elections, Eminent Domain, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights, War on Drugs
In addition to the presidential and congressional elections tomorrow, there are also some important referenda initiatives on the ballot in many states. They include several on issues of special interest to me and many VC readers: property rights and the War on Drugs. Here in Virginia, we have Question 1, which would strengthen protection for […]
Throwing Civil Liberties to the Dogs?
Radley Balko has an interesting column noting the troubling implications of some of the arguments being made in the drug-sniffing dog cases currently before the Supreme Court. He points out that these dogs’ drug alerts are often unreliable because, in many cases, dogs seek to please their handlers rather than search out the truth. Thus, […]
Marijuana Legalization on this Year’s Ballot
Six states have marijuana legalization referendum questions on the ballot in this year’s election. Philip Smith has a good summary of them on the Stop the Drug War website [HT: Tom Angell]. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington will vote on initiatives to legalize marijuana generally, though all three would impose fairly extensive regulation on the new […]
Academics’ Letter of Support for Colorado Amendment 64 – A Marijuana Legalization Initiative
I am one of over 100 academics in various disciplines who signed a letter supporting Colorado Amendment 64, a referendum initiative which would legalize marijuana possession and sales in that state for residents over the age of 21, and generally institute a regulatory regime for marijuana similar to that currently in force for alcohol. The […]
Attorney General Holder grants BATFE expanded forfeiture powers
Details here, from Americans for Forfeiture Reform. In short, BATFE becomes another federal agency which gets to seize large sums of cash, based on presumption that a large sum of cash must be related to an illegal transaction in controlled substances. And notwithstanding the fact that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is […]
The Ruby Ridge murders, 20 years later
By David Kopel on August 22, 2012 11:48 pm in Criminal Law, Executive Branch, Growth of Government, Guns, Self-Defense, Targeted Killing, War on Drugs
The Prologue to my book No More Wacos: What’s Wrong with Federal Law Enforcement and How to Fix it, includes a section on the Ruby Ridge case. Much more on Waco and Ruby Ridge is available on the Waco page on my website.