Drug War

New research finds that the strong claims made by both advocates and critics of state‐​level marijuana legalization are substantially overstated and in some cases entirely without real‐​world support.

Law enforcement’s recent push for punishment might succeed in limiting opioid prescriptions but only at the cost of driving drug‐​dependent individuals into more dangerous criminal markets and toward adulterated street heroin and fentanyl. For individuals addicted to opioids or suffering from chronic pain, a war on drugs has never been a prescription for improving wellness.

If voters approve it, Measure 110 — the Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative — will reduce possession of all Schedule I through IV controlled substances to Class E violations, punished by a $100 fine.

It’s been 15 years since all drugs were legalized in America. In the throes of an overdose crisis that claimed, at its peak, more than 100,000 lives per year, an increasingly angry public forced American policymakers to look for a solution. Analyses of various drug policy regimes around the world clearly showed that the situation was markedly better in the few European countries that had responded to their own overdose crises by decriminalizing all drug use.