A Rehabilitated Prohibitionist
The former director of President George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and the co-author with former Drug Czars Bill Bennett and John Walters of the book “Body Count: Moral Poverty…And How to Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” has just come out in favor of medical marijuana and serious consideration of marijuana decriminalization.
A political scientist and criminologist John J. Dilulio Jr. holds a Harvard Ph.D. He is a former professor of politics and public policy at Princeton and former director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Management. He is now a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute and the Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Dilulio has been a proponent of coerced substance-abuse treatment as a way of reducing crime for years and his serious consideration of legalizing marijuana is a surprising turn-around.
The author of an article called ”Let ‘Em Rot,” DiIulio was often cited by conservatives advocating more prisons and longer sentences. “No one - at least, no one in elite policy-wonk circles - is a bigger fan of incarcerating known, adjudicated adult and juvenile criminals than me,” he wrote in a 1996 article for Slate. 1993 book review for The New Republic, he implied that they were getting off too lightly. “It is not unreasonable to argue,” he wrote, “that the problem with the ‘get-tough’ approach of the last twenty-five years is that it hasn’t actually been followed. Despite mandatory sentencing laws, most drug offenders and other felons continue to spend only a fraction of their sentences behind bars.”
Over the years DiIulio has shown that he understands the difference between predatory criminals and non-violent drug offenders. Imprisoning the former reduces crime and protects the public safety. Imprisoning the latter however, just costs a lot of money.
In a recent article in Democracy his prescription for reducing crime addresses marijuana thusly…
“… legalize marijuana for medically prescribed uses, and seriously
consider decriminalizing it altogether. Last year there were more than
800,000 marijuana-related arrests. The impact of these arrests on crime
rates was likely close to zero. There is almost no scientific evidence
showing that pot is more harmful to its users’ health, more of a
“gateway drug,” or more crime-causing in its effects than alcohol or
other legal narcotic or mind-altering substances. Our post-2000 legal
drug culture has untold millions of Americans, from the very young to
the very old, consuming drugs in unprecedented and untested combinations
and quantities. Prime-time commercial television is now a virtual
medicine cabinet (”just ask your doctor if this drug is right for you”).
Big pharmaceutical companies function as all-purpose drug pushers. And
yet we expend scarce federal, state, and local law enforcement resources
waging “war” against pot users. That is insane.”
Well put professor.
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2 Responses to “A Rehabilitated Prohibitionist”
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It is refreshing to see Mr. DiIulio take a step toward drug legalization, but he and most Americans will never walk far down this road as long as they believe more drug rehab is what will protect us. I’m a practicing psychiatrist and have just finished a book–soon to be published–arguing that medical approaches have not only failed, but they actually make our drug problems worse. The solution I propose is 1) legalize drugs so they become an accepted part of the culture, and 2) make people bear the consequences of their own behavior, i.e., we need to quit rescuing and enabling irresponsible behavior. This may seem harsh, but it is the way the world works and the way that substance abuse was controlled for millenia, prior to medical profession’s involvement.
[...] Dilulio Jr. calls for decriminalization of marijuanaBy “Radical” Russ Belville on March 11, 2010 (ReconsiDer) The former director of President George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and [...]