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I have been getting press calls every day about Proposition 19, a distinct subset of which ultimately result in an article that presents each side’s argument in enough detail for readers to make a judgment. Paul Rogers did a nice job capturing some key issues in this debate I had with Joe McNamara so I [...]
Archive for the ‘Drug Policy’ Category
September 27th, 2010
My last post in this series brought to an end my extended discussion of six particular issues facing drug and alcohol policymakers in the UK. I am grateful for the many people who posted thoughtful critiques and commentary on this series, as well as those who did so privately in email. In this final post, [...]
September 26th, 2010
Category: Drug Policy, Health and Medicine
Holding a national prescription drug take-back day has some immediate benefit in terms of protecting the environment and reducing prescription drug abuse and accidental poisonings at the far margins. But if we are still doing these sorts of “events” a decade from now, it will be a policy failure. A sheriff in an Arkansas town [...]
September 24th, 2010
Category: Drug Policy
I can understand completely that an agency charged with estimating tax revenue might say that they can’t make an estimate at the moment of what a new proposal will bring in because they need more time and information, and then put an estimate out once more information is available and they have had more time [...]
September 23rd, 2010
The UK government is grappling with a problem that bedevils all of us who provide, teach, administer or advocate for addiction treatment: Treatment outcomes are often disappointing. Among the quality problems that contribute to this situation are organizational dysfunction, excessive paperwork, the stigmatized nature of the enterprise, lack of connection between addiction services and the [...]
September 21st, 2010
Much of why public policy moves as it does from generation to generation and from place to place can be attributed to simple, well-articulated ideas that guide all the players both explicitly and implicitly. “Addiction is a sin and a sign of God’s disapproval” is one such influential idea, “Addiction is a chronic medical illness” [...]
September 19th, 2010
Category: Britain, Drug Policy
I get more than the usual narcissistic pleasure an award brings from this considerable honor bestowed by BMA. It took almost five years for our team of 12 researchers from 7 countries to write Drug Policy and the Public Good. The process was stimulating but also, frankly, arduous. In many areas, drug policy research doesn’t [...]
September 17th, 2010
Although a number of drugs cause problems in the UK, the country is unique among developed nations in the extent to which heroin dominates as the primary illegal drug. The main treatment response to the heroin-addicted population in recent years has been to dramatically expand methadone maintenance. According to Professor Susanne MacGregor’s new book on [...]
September 12th, 2010
Although it is often asserted that “alcoholics will do anything to get their drink”, there is overwhelming evidence that even the heaviest drinking segment of the population responds to increases in price (A scholarly and readable summary of the scientific literature in this area was recently produced by the estimable Phil Cook). People who are [...]
