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Racial Justice and Economic Efficiency Both Require Ending the War on Drugs

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Pierre-André Chiappori & Kristina Orfali, "Racial Justice and Economic Efficiency Both Require Ending the War on Drugs", in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2021, 21:4, pp.35-37.

Abstract

The paper by Earp, Lewis, and Hart (2021) offers a strong criticism of the so-called “war on drugs.” The authors very convincingly argue that the war “has worsened many aspects of public health while dispro-portionately targeting certain racialized communities.” They call for “the immediate decriminalization of rec-reational drugs and, ultimately, for their timely and appropriate legal regulation”—in short, for an end to the war on drugs.
While we fully share the authors’ conclusions, we believe that the case against prohibition is actually even stronger. The stated purpose of the war on drugs is to reduce (and ideally annihilate) consumption through two channels: discouraging demand (in par-ticular by criminalizing drug possession and use) and reducing supply.

More info (see editor's website)

Dignity versus autonomy: bioethics in the making, a comparison between France and the USA
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Kristina Orfali
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2021
Kristina Orfali, Pierre-André Chiappori