The case against drug prohibition

Prohibition against off-label drug promotion challenged.

Gill and Sade • Paying for Kidneys: the Case against Prohibition

We argue that healthy people should be allowed to sell one of their kidneys while they are alive—that the current prohibition on payment for kidneys ought to be overturned. Our argument has three parts. First, we argue that the moral basis for the current policy on live kidney donations and on the sale of other kinds of tissue implies that we ought to legalize the sale of kidneys. Second, we ad...

Parents against prohibition: campaigning for drug law reform.

When Leah Betts died in 1995 after taking an ecstasy pill at her 18th birthday party, extraordinary media coverage resonated with the “just say no” mantra. Leah’s parents railed against all non-medical drug use, backing new laws to prohibit drugs, circulating a photograph of their comatose daughter in hospital, and running a poster campaign with the words “Sorted: Just one ecstasy tablet took L...

Global drug prohibition: its uses and crises

In the 20th century, political leaders and governments throughout the world supported drug prohibition and constructed a global drug prohibition system. They did so because of the influence of the USA and its allies and the UN. This article suggests they also did so because drug prohibition, drug demonisation and anti-drug campaigns were very useful*/especially to politicians, the police, the m...

Drug Prohibition: A Legal and Economic Analysis*

AESTKACT. This paper argues the case for the lcgalizatioii of addictive drugs such as iiiarijuaiia, cocaine, aiid licroin. It maintains that there are no “market failures” which could justify a banning of thcsc substaiiccs, and that, as in the earlier historical case of prohibition of alcohol, our present drug policy has increased crinic, decreased respect for lcgitiiriate law, and created grea...