AN UNFLINCHING ANALYSIS OF ONE OF THE MAJOR ISSUES OF OUR TIME — THE SHIFT FROM CRIMINALIZATION TO REGULATION OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS.
“Permit but discourage” has become the central theme in regulating consumption. Alcohol, tobacco, and non-nutritious food can all be sold, just as various forms of gambling are allowed, but harmful levels of use are discouraged by taxes and other regulations. Lessons have been learned the hard way from how society has regulated other forms of addiction and consumption — it’s time to apply those lessons to drugs.
The impact of drug criminalization on society has been the same across borders: the cost of controlling the production, sale, and use of recreational drugs by means of criminal law is just too high. Once drugs have been decriminalized or legalized, however, a regulatory scheme must be implemented to drive up prices, dampen consumption, and provide revenue for treatment, counselling, and other costs.
Off the Street: Legalizing Drugs calls for a thoughtful, national discussion of these issues. Whatever the issues raised by legalization, whatever the questions surrounding regulation, the many costs of continued criminalization are just too high.
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- Toronto-based international expert on reducing the harm of risky behaviour, society and Canadian law.
- Published author/editor of 7 books including Permit but Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) and Regulating Obesity? Government, Society, and Questions of Public Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
- At work on his next book on the decriminalization of recreational drugs.
- Regular contributor to Huffington Post:
- Media-genic with considerable experience on TV and radio.
About W.A. Bogart
About
Find out more about Bill and his his career dedicated to understanding and improving the value of law to society.
Publications and Articles
Publications
Bill is the author/editor of 7 books and is a regular contributor to various media outlets.
Media Appearances
Media
Explore Bill's various media appearances providing commentary on television and radio.
Reports in the media suggest that obesity is a growing danger. Too many people weigh too much and the numbers of such individuals have increased substantially over the last decades. Such excess weight is associated with a variety of diseases and other negative consequences, ranging from high blood pressure to inability to fit into an airline seat, from diabetes to coffins that are too small for obese deceased.
Yet such narratives of obesity are increasingly challenged. Critics point to evidence suggesting that rates have leveled off and may even be declining. They also question the extent to which obesity causes or is even associated with various diseases. They point to the dismal statistics regarding weight loss: some can lose pounds but very few can keep them off over a five-year period. As a result critics insist that weight should not be, in and of itself, the issue.