The Case for Legalizing Drugs

by Richard Lawrence Miller

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0275934594
• ISBN13: 9780275934590
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Miller provides the facts to cut through the rhetoric.

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.

A fresh look at our nation's most misunderstood problem.

Fantastically written and masterfully researched, this book contains more hard data than any other resource I've seen. My own misguided impressions of America's drug problem have been set straight thanks to this resource. I would never fathom such scenarios and circumstances as those depicted in this book, accounts deftly brought into light with unparalleled skill and remarkable insight. Common sense runs fully through each point the author makes, and vivid analogies provide the reader a capability to understand the complex ideas within... without requiring a degree in sociology, psycology, pharmecology, or the like. All in all, this book demands the highest respect and forces the reader to explore new ideas with an open mind - something the nation's drug education force has failed to do in the last few decades.

The book that changed my beliefs about drugs

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.

An excellent introduction to the fallacies of the Drug War

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.