The death of George Floyd has accelerated calls for police reform. Although decriminalizing drugs and the people who use them will not end police violence, it is part of the structural change needed to fix the problem, writes fellow Katharine Neill Harris.
The collective trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic may provide a clearer understanding of why people use drugs — to help us see it not as a moral failing or a brain malfunction, but as a fundamentally human response to negative life events. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.
"This pandemic and looming economic crisis will affect all of us ... The sooner we relearn how to set aside our differences and unite during this difficult moment, the stronger we will emerge from it," writes former Secretary James A. Baker, III.
The populist government under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely discounted the threat of COVID-19, and the true extent of the outbreak Mexico may not yet be known. If conditions significantly change for the worse, the president faces not only a public health crisis but also the possible undoing of the country's populist experiment.
Products containing hemp extracts high in CBD are gaining mainstream popularity, acceptance and federal legality. In this article, Lisa Pittman, nonresident fellow in drug policy, focuses on litigation issues particular to hemp.
According to the authors, as a leading agricultural state, Texas is poised to become the new leader in hemp production, whether for medicinal or industrial purposes.
Fellow Katharine Neill Harris considers the validity of risk assessment tools, which estimate the likelihood that an individual who has been charged with or convicted of a crime will commit a future offense. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2Cwl6jc
The massacre in El Paso is a symbol of complex social phenomena that we are experiencing today — and is not simply a matter of mental health, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other politicians have stepped forward to suggest. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are becoming a permanent fixture of modern policing, and their effects are likely to be much more nuanced than originally predicted.
Despite the wealth of evidence attesting to the efficacy of medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, the majority of Americans who need it can't get it — including in Harris County, Texas’ largest county. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/31D9qGV