Should we legalize marijuana? If we legalize, what in particular should be legal? Just possessing marijuana and growing your own? Selling and advertising? If selling becomes legal, who gets to sell? Corporations? Co-ops? The government? What regulations should apply? How high should taxes be? Different forms of legalization could bring very different results. This second edition of Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know® discusses what is happening with marijuana policy, describing both the risks and the benefits of using marijuana, without taking sides in the legalization debate. The book details the potential gains and losses from legalization, explores the "middle ground" options between prohibition and commercialized production, and considers the likely impacts of legal marijuana on occasional users, daily users, patients, parents, and employers - and even on drug traffickers.
Autorentext
Jonathan P. Caulkins is H. Guyford Stever Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Public Policy and Information Systems Management. He specializes in systems analysis of problems pertaining to drugs, crime, terror, violence, and prevention - work that won the David Kershaw Award from the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management, a Robert Wood Johnson Health Investigator Award, and the INFORMS President's Award. Beau Kilmer is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, where he codirects the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. His research has appeared in leading journals and his commentaries about marijuana have been published by CNN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other outlets. Mark A.R. Kleiman is a Professor of Public Policy and the Director of the Crime Reduction and Justice Initiative at New York University's Marron Institute of Urban Management. He is a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Research Council, and is a frequent guest expert in the media. He is the author of five books on drug and criminal justice policy.
Inhalt
Introduction PART I: MARIJUANA AND PROHIBITION 1. What is marijuana? What does "marijuana" mean? What is marijuana legalization? How does it feel to get high? What are the active ingredients in marijuana? What are the varieties of marijuana plants? What are the varieties of marijuana products? What is industrial hemp? What are the alternatives to smoking? Has marijuana been getting more potent? Is higher potency bad? How long does intoxication last? How long after use can marijuana be detected? Is medical marijuana the same as illegal marijuana? What is synthetic marijuana (Spice or K2)? Additional Reading 2. Who uses marijuana? How many people use marijuana? How has marijuana use changed over time? How have marijuana policies changed in the past half-century? How much marijuana do users consume? Can marijuana use lead to dependence or addiction? How common is marijuana use in the United States? What are typical patterns of marijuana use? To what extent do heavy users dominate consumption? Has heavy use become more common? How much do users spend on marijuana? Additional Reading 3. What are the risks of using marijuana? Why is it difficult to measure the consequences of marijuana use? How do researchers study the consequences of marijuana use? What is the likelihood of becoming dependent on marijuana? How bad is marijuana dependency compared to dependency on other drugs? How many users seek treatment for problems with marijuana? Does marijuana treatment work? Can users experience a fatal overdose from marijuana? Can users experience a nonfatal overdose from using too much marijuana? Does marijuana use cause emphysema and other respiratory problems? Does marijuana use cause cancer? How much harm does secondhand marijuana smoke cause? Is marijuana a "gateway drug"? Does using marijuana affect brain development? Does using marijuana lead to cognitive impairment and a reduction in IQ? Does marijuana use affect education and employment? Does using marijuana cause schizophrenia and other mental health problems? Does using marijuana influence crime and delinquency? Does marijuana use cause automobile crashes? Does mothers' prenatal marijuana use affect their babies' health? Should mothers who use marijuana breast-feed their babies? How does parental marijuana use influence child welfare? Is marijuana really safer than alcohol? Additional Reading 4. What is known about the nonmedical benefits of using marijuana? Why don't we know more about the benefits of marijuana use? Would there be more high-quality research if marijuana were legal nationally? Is there a "stoned" way of thinking? Is "stoned thinking" valuable? Does marijuana use enhance creativity? Can marijuana use enhance athletic performance? What role does cannabis play in worship? So there's no real evidence of any benefits? Why should mere pleasure count as a benefit? Additional Reading 5. What are the medical benefits of marijuana? Is marijuana medicine? But isn't smoking unhealthy? What did the 1999 Institute of Medicine report (really) say? What is the state of medical marijuana literature today? Does marijuana have legally recognized medical value in the United States? Why isn't marijuana available as a regular prescription drug in the United States? What is happening with medical marijuana outside the United States? If there are pharmaceutical cannabinoids, is there any reason to use plant material? Additional Reading 6. How stringent is marijuana enforcement in the United States? Does it make sense for marijuana to be a Schedule I substance? Who gets arrested for marijuana possession? What happens after those possession arrests? How harshly are marijuana producers and traffickers punished? How many people are in prison for marijuana offenses? Additional Reading PART II: NATIONAL LEGALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 7. What are the pros and cons of legalization generally? What does it mean to legalize a drug? What is the essential tradeoff between legalization and prohibition? Are there shades of legalization? Why have drug laws in the first place? Why even consider legalizing a substance whose use creates harm? Wouldn't the results of a policy that treated marijuana like alcohol be an improvement over the current mess? But wasn't alcohol prohibition in the United States a complete failure? How much of the increase in consumption after legalization would reflect increased heavy use rather than increased casual use? Can't the effects of marketing be reined in by regulations and taxes? What about legal availability without free trade? Couldn't that work? Isn't it impossible to make someone better off by coercing behavioral change? If people choose to harm themselves with drugs, why is that anyone else's business? But isn't everyone with an addictive personality already addicted to something? If the results of legalization are uncertain, why not just try it out, and go back to the current system if legalization doesn't work? Additional Reading 8. How is legalization of marijuana different from legalization of other drugs? How does legalizing marijuana compare to legalizing all drugs? Isn't marijuana safer than other drugs? If marijuana accounts for half of all drug arrests, would legalizing marijuana free up half our prison cells? How much drug-related crime, violence, and corruption would marijuana legalization eliminate? Would legalization increase marijuana use and dependence by as much as legalization of crack and other drugs would increase their markets? Would more marijuana use lead to more alcohol abuse, or less? Would marijuana use lead to more or less abuse of other substances? If alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, what's the logical justification for one being legal and the other illegal? Cou…