The Case for Legalizing Drugs [Hardcover]

Richard Lawrence Miller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0275934594 | ISBN-13: 978-0275934590 | Publication Date: January 30, 1991

On the 75th anniversary of the Harrison Narcotic Act that unleashed the federal anti-drug crusade, historian Richard Lawrence Miller explores the origins, purposes, and effects of America's drug war. Thoroughly documented, The Case for Legalizing Drugs assembles diverse findings by chemists, biologists, pharmacologists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, prosecutors, police officers, and drug users themselves. The resulting mosaic argues that most problems associated with illicit drugs are caused by laws restricting them. This book is a realistic appraisal of legalization, vital to anyone concerned about illicit drugs, public policy, and democracy. Despite the ineffectiveness and counterproductivity of anti-drug laws, enthusiasm grows for them. Laws that fail to eliminate drugs may nonetheless achieve hidden goals. Miller illuminates those goals and asks whether they are wise. Although drug war proponents may complain that civil liberties interfere with drug suppression, Miller argues that the answer is not less democracy, but more. He presents a message of hope and healing, based upon a century of scientific research and historical experience, and declares that legalization would not be a surrender to drugs, but liberation from them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Drugs do not threaten the American way of life; they are part of it," avers historian Miller ( Truman ) as he makes a compelling case for declaring all drugs legal. The author wants the manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, possession and use of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana and LSD legalized, with government price controls enforced to keep the costs low, if need be. The goal of a drug-free America, he argues, is an impossible one; thus, the anti-drug war is an anti-people war especially punishing to the nation's youth and to African-Americans. Further, Miller claims, the battle harms American democracy by, in effect, condemning users as subhuman outcasts (he even draws analogies here with the anti-Jewish rampage of the Nazis in the 1930s). Turning conventional attitudes upside down, Miller's book offers rich food for thought--and for argument.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Miller, a historian ( Heritage of Fear , LJ 1/89; Truman , LJ 12/85) and radio producer, adds to an increasing chorus of American opinion in favor of drug legalization by marshaling an extraordinary number of sources and historical analogies to Prohibition and the time preceding 1914 when narcotics were legal. His chapter on the mythic attributes we give to drug users is unique, but he also includes all the usual legalization arguments. Miller omits some evidence for the opposing viewpoint, and he dogmatically overstates his case. Still, a book so clearly and popularly written will convince almost any reader to question, at the least, accepted public policies and pieties. For public library collections.
- Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. of Criminal Justice Lib.,
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers (January 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275934594
• ISBN-13: 978-0275934590
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Crime & Criminals  > War on Drugs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miller provides the facts to cut through the rhetoric., December 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Case for Legalizing Drugs (Hardcover)

Political debate of sensitive issues is too freqently polarized by passion, and too infreqently built upon the foundations of rigorous research, rational analysis and orderly presentation. Miller's book is therefore an invaluable tool for the proponents of legalization. It offers unassailable validity to arguments that are easily dismissed when couched in the shrill voice of uninformed activism. Miller's book is a masterpiece. The single flaw is that the notes are re-numbered for each chapter and the sources cited require two steps to find. But were the connections less exciting, this would go un-noticed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book that changed my beliefs about drugs, January 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Case for Legalizing Drugs (Hardcover)

Miller goes into meticulous detail, illustrating the harm caused by drugs and drug users, compared to the harm caused by the War on Drugs. He often makes statements that seem to wildly contrast with what most people think is true about drugs, and but for the painstaking use of footnotes after each of these statements which refers to a study, or a well-regarded book on the topic, this book would not nearly be so convincing.

This book is a must read for politicians and anyone who feels strongly about drugs and drug prohibition.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to the fallacies of the Drug War, February 6, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Case for Legalizing Drugs (Hardcover)

Written for the layman, Miller makes a convincing and unhysterical case for the end of the War on Drugs. Read this book and compare it to the uninformative propaganda of those who are for continuing the failed War on Drugs.