Drug Policy

KEY PEOPLE

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Read Drug Policy Program posts on the Baker Institute Blog.
Access the Drug Truth Archive, a collection of 600-plus interviews on drug policy conducted by radio host Dean Becker.

Few would dispute that illicit drug use and abuse is one of the most prominent and perplexing issues facing our society. For nearly a century, the United States has been an active proponent of the punitive prohibition of illicit drugs. Unfortunately, the “War on Drugs” has been largely unsuccessful; prosecution of illegal drug consumption has filled our prisons without significantly reducing crime, decreasing homelessness, preventing overdose deaths, diminishing the spread of HIV or undermining the illegal drug market. Many would now argue that the vision of a “drug-free” America is unrealistic. Other countries are turning to “harm reduction” policies to reduce the societal damage that illegal drug use causes. With cautious optimism, the Baker Institute Drug Policy Program pursues research and open debate on local and national drug policies in hopes of developing pragmatic policies based on common sense, driven by human rights interests, and focused on reducing the death, disease, crime and suffering associated with drug use.

In recent research, William Martin, the institute’s Harry and Hazel Chavanne Senior Fellow in Religion and Public Policy, has written, lectured, lobbied and testified before the Texas Legislature supporting needle exchange programs, widely used in many countries but scarce and often opposed in the United States, as a proven method of reducing the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C without increasing drug use. He has also written and lectured in support of regulation and taxation of marijuana as a means to 1) reduce profits criminal cartels reap from illegal sales and associated violence; 2) enhance state and federal budgets by lowering costs of law enforcement and corrections, and raising income from taxation of the widely used drug; and 3) halt damage caused by applying criminal sanctions to people who use a drug less harmful than either tobacco or alcohol.

Other current research focuses on the injustices and enormous individual and social costs associated with a punishment-oriented approach to drug use and abuse, perhaps seen most clearly in mandatory minimum sentences that can consign drug users with no record of violent or other serious crime to decades in prison, at great financial cost and with little evidence of efficacious consequences.

PUBLICATIONS
2011: Mexico's Government Begins to Retake Northeastern Mexico
Dec 09 2011

Gary J. Hale; A "Failed State" in Mexico: Tamaulipas Declares Itself Ungovernable
Jul 27 2011

Gary J. Hale; Syringe Exchange: Responsible, Prudent, Compassionate
Apr 12 2011

William Martin
2010: Time for Latin America to reconsider prohibition
Nov 05 2010

Erika de la Garza, William Martin; Baker Institute Policy Report 45: Cartels, Corruption, Carnage, and Cooperation
Oct 25 2010

William Martin
2009: Texas High Ways
Oct 01 2009

William Martin; Creating needle-exchange programs would be the Christian thing to do
Apr 04 2009

William Martin; Needle Exchange Programs: Recommendations for the Next Administration
Jan 15 2009

William Martin; Needle Exchange Programs: Sending the Right Message
Jan 15 2009

William Martin
2008: The War on Drugs: A New Paradigm
Oct 28 2008

Lawrence T. Jablecki
2007: The Damage Done
Apr 01 2007

William Martin; Policy with a Point: Clean Needles for Drug Addicts
Mar 03 2007

William Martin
2005: Needle Exchange Programs: Sending the Right Message
Mar 01 2005
2002: Drugs, Democracy, and the Andean Crisis
Apr 10 2002

Gina Amatangelo; Moving Beyong the 'War on Drugs' - Transcript of Remarks
Apr 10 2002

Lee P. Brown, Mayor

EVENTS

Document Actions

Drug Policy