Beau Kilmer

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

Codirector, RAND Drug Policy Research Center; Senior Policy Researcher, RAND; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School

Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in public policy, Harvard University; M.P.P., University of California, Berkeley; B.A. in international relations, Michigan State University

Overview

Biography

Beau Kilmer is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, where he codirects the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. He is also a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Kilmer's research lies at the intersection of public health and public safety, with a special emphasis on substance use, illicit markets, corrections, and public policy. Some of his current projects include estimating the size of illicit drug markets and measuring the effect of South Dakota's innovative 24/7 Sobriety Project on drunk driving and domestic violence.

Kilmer's work has been published in leading journals such as Addiction, American Journal of Public Health, Foreign Policy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and in popular media outlets such as The American Interest, Los Angeles Times, Nexos, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. His new book on marijuana legalization (co-authored with J. Caulkins, A. Hawken, and M. Kleiman) was published by Oxford University Press. He is regularly interviewed and quoted in national and international media outlets including Al Jazeera, All Things Considered, The Atlantic, BBC, CNN, Marketplace, NBC Nightly News, New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

Before earning his doctorate at Harvard University, Kilmer received a Judicial Administration Fellowship that supported his work with the San Francisco Drug Court.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

Assessing the effects of marijuana legalization
Estimating the size of black markets
Evaluating innovative approaches to reducing substance use among criminal offenders
Calculating the cost-effectiveness of brief interventions for youth

Selected Publications

Beau Kilmer, Nancy Nicosia, Paul Heaton, Greg Midgette, "Efficacy of Frequent Monitoring with Swift, Certain, and Modest Sanctions for Violations: Insights from South Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Project," American Journal of Public Health, 1, 2013

Jonathan P. Caulkins, Beau Kilmer, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Robert J. MacCoun, Peter H. Reuter, "Design Considerations for Legalizing Cannabis: Lessons Inspired by Analysis of California's Proposition 19," Addiction, 107(5), 2012

Jonathan P. Caulkins, Angela Hawken, Beau Kilmer, Mark A.R. Kleiman, Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford University Press, 2012

Beau Kilmer, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Peter H. Reuter, The U.S. Drug Policy Landscape: Insights and Opportunities for Improving the View, RAND (OP-393), 2012

Beau Kilmer, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Robert J. MacCoun, Peter H. Reuter, Altered State? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets, RAND (OP-315), 2010

Beau Kilmer, Peter Reuter, "Doped: How two plants wreak havoc on the countries that produce and consume them--and everyone in between," Foreign Policy, 175, 2009

Mark Kleiman, Beau Kilmer, "The Dynamics of Deterrence," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(34), 2009

Beau Kilmer, "Does Parolee Drug Testing Influence Employment and Education Outcomes? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment with Noncompliance," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 24(1), 2008