Project Description
Analysis of the Drug Legalization Debate
PIs: Robert MacCoun and Peter Reuter
Funded by: Arthur P. Sloan Foundation, The Ford Foundation
Despite occasional expressions of sympathy from prominent persons, drug legalization is dismissed out of hand by mainstream politicians. RAND has analyzed the claims of proponents and opponents of legalization. In particular, researchers have examined U.S. experience in regulating gambling and tobacco and alcohol use, as well as experience with legal cocaine a century ago. They also sought analogies in the looser regulatory stances of countries such as The Netherlands and Switzerland. Among the lessons they drew was the importance not so much of legalization as of drug commercialization in increasing the frequency of use. They emphasized the very different kinds of effects that prohibition and legalization have and the difficulty of trading these off against each other, and the likelihood that the benefits and costs of legalization would not be distributed evenly across society. Finally, they pointed out the possibility of realizing some gain in loosening the probhitionist straitjacket typifying current U.S. drug policy in a manner that falls well short of legalization.
Related Publications:
MacCoun, Robert J. and Peter Reuter, Drug War Heresies: Learning from Other Vices, Times, & Places, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
MacCoun, Robert J., "Drugs and the Law: A Psychological Analysis of Drug Prohibition," Psychological Bulletin, 113(3):497-512, 1993. (RAND Reprint RP-209.)
MacCoun, Robert J., "The Psychology of Harm Reduction: Comparing Alternative Strategies for Modifying High-Risk Behaviors," Wellness Lecture Series, 6:5-27, October 2, 1996. (RAND Reprint RP-611.)
MacCoun, Robert J., James Kahan, James Gillespie and Jeeyang Rhee, "A Content Analysis of the Drug Legalization Debate," Journal of Drug Issues, 23(4):721-735, 1993. (RAND Reprint RP-242.)
MacCoun, Robert, and Peter Reuter, "Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: Reasoning by Analogy in the Legalization Debate," Science, 278:47-52, 1997. (RAND Reprint RP-657.)
MacCoun, Robert J., Peter Reuter, and Thomas Schelling, "Assessing Alternative Drug Control Regimes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 15(3):330-352, June 1996. (RAND Reprint RP-555.)
MacCoun, Robert J., and Peter Reuter, What We Do and Don't Know About the Likely Effects of Decriminalization and Legalization: A Brief Summary (testimony presented to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform, July 13, 1999), RAND, CT-161, 1999.
MacCoun, Robert J., Aaron J. Saiger, James P. Kahan, and Peter Reuter, "Drug Policies and Problems: The Promise and Pitfalls of Cross-National Comparison," in N. Heather, et al., Psychoactive Drugs & Harm Reduction: From Faith to Science , Whurr Publishers, London, 1993. (RAND Reprint RP-224.)
Reuter, Peter, Mathea Falco, and Robert J. MacCoun, Comparing Western European and North American Drug Policies: An International Conference Report, RAND, MR-237-GMF/SF, 1993.
Reuter, Peter, and Robert MacCoun, "Assessing the Legalization Debate" in Estievenart, G. (ed.), Drug Policies and Strategies to Combat Drugs. The Treaty on European Union: Framework for a New European Strategy to Combat Drugs. Amsterdam, Kluwer, pp. 39-49, 1995.
Reuter, Peter, and Robert J. MacCoun, "Lessons from the Absence of Harm Reduction in American Drug Policy," Tobacco Control, 4(2):S28-S32, Autumn 1995. (RAND Reprint RP-480.)
Top