A Foundation for Inquiry into the Drug Debate in America

The dynamics of our drug policies in the United States are a complex puzzle to which there are no simplistic solutions. Drug War Deadlock presents a diverse collection of readings from scholarly journals, government reports, think tank studies, newspapers, and books that offer a comprehensive look at the drug debate.

Each section of the book features opposing articles written by many of the foremost authorities in their respective fields, offering a concise view of the many divergent viewpoints surrounding drug policy in America. The authors discuss the cases for and against such alternatives as legalization, decriminalization, and harm reduction. In addition, they examine Europe's more liberal drug policies and debate whether they could be effectively applied in the United States. Throughout the book, they consider the moral implications of drug use and the thorny questions surrounding the nature and limits of restrictions that society can exercise over free individuals regarding their personal choices.

Drug War Deadlock does not attempt to provide answers to every issue relating to illegal drugs, but it will enable the reader to draw his or her own conclusions concerning some of the more urgent questions of our day.

Laura E. Huggins is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the coauthor (with Hoover senior fellow Terry Anderson) of Property Rights: A Practical Guide to Freedom and Prosperity (2003). She is currently development director and a research fellow at PERC--the Property and Environment Research Center, in Bozeman, Montana.

Contributors: Howard Abadinsky, Ronald Bayer, William J. Bennett, Ted Galen Carpenter, Lou Dobbs, Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug Policy Alliance, David F. Duncan, The Economist, Milton Friedman, Bruce D. Glasscock, Asa Hutchinson, Bruce D. Johnson, James A. Inciardi, Charles Levinthal, Robert J. MacCoun, Duane McBride, Joseph D. McNamara, MSNBC, Ethan A. Nadelmann, PBS, Robert E. Peterson, Peter Reuter, John Raisian, John Jay Rouse, Sam Staley, John Stossel, Thomas Szasz, Yvonne Terry, John P. Walters, James Q. Wilson