Four points about drug decriminalization

Criminal Justice Ethics

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 24-32

  Husaka, Douglas ^a  

^a RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79959740555     PISSN: 0731129X     EISSN: 19375948     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0731129X.2003.9992137     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. Cal. State Penal Code, §381 (b) (2002).
2. This point is made nicely by Richard Boire.
3. See his http://www.cognitiveliberty.org.
4. I would be happy to be mistaken about this. Anyone who is more confident in his ability to identify and defend deep principles that are violated by all drug prohibitions is welcome to enlighten and assist me.
5. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, (Selby-Bigge ed, 1968), Book III Section 1 p.464.
6. See Douglas Husak: Limitations on Criminalization and the General Part of Criminal Law, in Stephen Shute and A.P. Simester (eds), Criminal Law Theory: Doctrines of the General Part, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 13.
7. When I lecture about this topic, I try to anticipate and respond to an argument that I think people in the particular audience are likely to hold. Invariably, among the first points raised in the ensuing discussion is: You did a fine job with the argument you addressed, but you did not respond to some other argument. Of course, the argument to which I did not respond is the very argument which I addressed in a previous lecture, when someone in the audience protested that I neglected the argument to which I am now responding. This is all very frustrating. Again, I find myself in the predicament described by Hume.
8. William Stuntz, "The Pathological Politics of Criminal Law", Michigan Law Review 100 (2001), p. 508 n.5.
9. For a more detailed elaboration, see Erwin Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies, New York: Aspen, 1997, pp. 414-17,533-45.
10. See Sherry Colb, "Freedom from Incarceration: Why Is This Right Different from All Other Rights?" New York University Law Review 69 (1994), p. 781.
11. But see Douglas Husak: "The Nature and Justifiability of Nonconsummate Offenses," Arizona Law Review 37 (1995), p. 151.
12. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice (29th ed., 2001), Table 2.49.
13. See Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter, Drug War Heresies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp.82-84.
14. See Mitch Earlywine, Understanding Marijuana, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, p.247.