The Drug Solution: Regulating Drugs According to Principles of Efficiency, Justice and Democracy

Scot Paul Saltstone is a lawyer in North Bay, Ontario.

Mitchell is a lawyer and an associate professor in Carleton
University’s Department of Law. This book is a must-read for those
interested in the public policy debate on recreational drugs.

The book briefly reviews the arguments for and against legalizing
drugs. However, its main goal is to analyze various models of drug
regulation. It reviews methods such as uniform criminal-law controls;
private law deterrence and compensation; drug rationing; uniform tax
controls; and price disincentives. Mitchell seeks to provide legal,
ethical, and scientific criteria that policy-makers can use to make
intelligent choices between competing methods of regulating drug use in
society.

This book supports its criticism of current drug laws and enforcement
policies with a scholarly but interesting review of medical, ethical,
and legal research. Although its thesis that society should end the war
on drugs and instead regulate drug use is not a “politically
correct” view, it is convincing.