A seven-part blog series attracts a record number of readers.
Baker Institute fellows and guest writers considered whether the United States should legalize marijuana in a recent series of blogs that attracted thousands of readers and hundreds of comments. The series was the second installment of Viewpoints, a Baker Institute blog feature that offers an array of views on a single issue.
Contributors to the marijuana series included William Martin, director of the Baker Institute Drug Policy Program; Baker Institute nonresident drug fellow Gary Hale, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent; and guest writer Kevin Sabet, a former senior drug policy adviser in the Obama administration.
View the video above to hear the authors expand on their Viewpoints entries.
Click through to the posts below to read all of the entries in the Baker Institute Viewpoints series “Should marijuana be legalized?”
- “Marijuana: A case for legalization,” by William Martin, director of the Baker Institute Drug Policy Program.
- “In a contest with alcohol and tobacco, marijuana wins,” by guest writer Sylvia Longmire, an author and expert on Mexico’s drug wars.
- “Legalization of marijuana: When, not if,” by Baker Institute nonresident drug fellow Gary Hale, former chief of intelligence in the Houston Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
- “Regulations work: Lessons from California’s experience with medical marijuana,” by guest writer Tom Heddleston, Ph.D., whose dissertation examined the formation and development of the medical marijuana movement in California.
- “Marijuana won’t be legalized anytime soon,” by Tony Payan, Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and director of the Baker Institute Mexico Center.
- “Why legalizing marijuana is a bad idea,” by Joan Neuhaus Schaan, former fellow in homeland security and terrorism at the Baker Institute.
- "Marijuana: A case against legalization," by guest writer Kevin A. Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida College of Medicine.