DRUG WAR HERESIES
Book Jacket Blurbs
“This book appears just in time as the public keeps
shouting at its leaders to ease up on their absolutist drug war. Written
by two of the most knowledgeable analysts of drug policy, it provides the
fullest analysis of the drug-policy problem yet to emerge. Drawing on historical
experience in the US and contemporary innovation in Europe, it provides
a careful blueprint for a drug policy based on reducing the harm of combatting
drugs as well as the drugs themselves, and thereby avoids the horrors of
strict zero-tolerance or those of full legalization.”
–Alfred Blumstein, Past President, American Society of Criminology
“If you're happy believing what "everyone knows" about the
drug problem and how to manage it, put this book down at once. If you're
interested in the truth, take it home and read it. MacCoun and
Reuter are knowledgeable, perceptive, relentless, and dispassionate.
From now on, knowing what they have to say will be the price of
admission to any serious discussion of drug policy.”
–Mark Kleiman, Author of Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results
“This is a superb book that should be required reading for
every governmental official concerned with drug abuse policy.
It is refreshing to read a book on drug abuse policy that uses data to reach
conclusions rather than to justify preconceived views. Neither the drug legalization
proponents nor the drug warriors are going to find much comfort in this book.
It will hopefully, however, give the vast majority of us who are moderates
in our views about drug abuse policy the data to demand changes in our current
policies.”
-–Charles R. Schuster, Former Director, National Institute
on Drug Abuse
“Confronting the failure of our highly punitive prohibitionist
policy, MacCoun and Reuter thoroughly examine the consequences of drug
legalization in the United States. Marshaling the available empirical
evidence, they provide an example of what a rational, sophisticated inquiry
into U.S. drug policy ought to be. Works like "Drug War Heresies"
are needed to shatter the current ideological barriers to vigorous public
debate on alternatives to repression.”
–Gerald M. Oppenheimer, Co-editor of Confronting Drug Policy
“The authors have produced a clearly and well-written analysis
of the complex and interconnected empirical and normative issues that make
drug policy debate so contentious in the USA and elsewhere. Given the intellectual
dominance of American research and thinking about drug policy in the international
drug policy debate, the book has a significance that goes beyond the narrowly
parochial context of the USA. The reputation and track record of the authors
will guarantee the book a wide international readership.”
–Wayne Hall, Director, Australian National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre
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