Friday September 15, 2023
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom
Dampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library*
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
Marijuana possession and sales are becoming legal, or less illegal (“decriminalized”) in many states – so much that corporations need a guide to what their own policies can be. As we discussed last week, Ohio will vote on an initiative to regulate cannabis like alcohol on November 7. As Lee Hoffer discussed with us on March 3, there is growing interest in medical use of psychedelics such as psilocybin, with research restrictions drastically reduced in recent years. Bipartisan efforts have reduced mandatory sentences for drug (mostly cannabis) use both at the federal and state levels.
The side-effects of the “war on drugs” are legion, and it has been a long time since it looked like much of a success. One Brookings Institution commentary in 2021 noted that, “the War on Drugs, not the war in Afghanistan, is America’s longest war… [it] has been a staggering policy failure… [but]…has been wildly successful in one specific area: institutionalizing racism.” But a lot of this argument is based on marijuana restrictions, and even if legalization or decriminalization makes sense for cannabis, should this decriminalization extend to the more commonly used “hard” drugs like heroin and cocaine?
Back in 2016, polling data showed that most respondents saw a big difference between cannabis and other drugs. In April the Washington Post published Michael Clune’s answer: no, these drugs should not be decriminalized, because “I know, from my own experience with addiction that legal consequences can play an essential role in pushing people towards a path to recovery.” The occasion was the reissue of Professor Clune’s memoir of his heroin experience, White Out, a superb book (in my own opinion) that the New Yorker review thought might be a bit too good at making readers understand smack’s hold on its users.
Advocates for decriminalization were encouraged when in 2020 voters in Oregon passed, by a 17% margin, Measure 110, “which eliminated criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of any drug, including cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.” Advocates also had long been able to point to the experience of Portugal, which substantially decriminalized in 2001. During the first decade or more of the policy many observers considered it a rousing success (see this 2009 Cato Institute report for one example). Yet experience in Oregon “hasn’t gone as planned,” while, perhaps due in part to pressures from the pandemic, the situation in Portugal also does not seem as positive. As an article in the Washington Post recently reported, much greater public visibility of drug use led the mayor of Porto, the nation’s second largest city, to comment that, “these days in Portugal, it is forbidden to smoke tobacco outside a school or a hospital. It is forbidden to advertise ice cream and sugar candies. And yet, it is allowed for [people] to be there injecting drugs. We’ve normalized it.”
Clearly Professor Clune’s doubts about decriminalization of hard drugs are widely shared. Yet the flaws of the “war on drugs” are also well-known, and are among the reasons why Professor Hoffer does not agree. Both of our speakers have given brilliant presentations to the “Friday Lunch”; it will be a great pleasure to welcome them together for what should be a highly enlightening discussion.
In-Person and Virtual Attendance
In order to make it easy for people to protect themselves and still participate, the meetings can be attended on Zoom. Participants can register for each meeting in the same way they did for the past three years. The link is posted below.
The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. Please also be prepared to show identification when entering Kelvin Smith Library.
Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.
Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.
This week’s Zoom link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkduqpqj0oG9QGWrHpgaOLhY4QmKaqCtVV
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please also e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about arrangements or any suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guests
Michael W. Clune is the critically acclaimed author of the memoirs Gamelife and White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin. His academic books include Writing Against Time and American Literature and the Free Market. Clune’s work has appeared in venues ranging from Harper’s, Salon, and Granta, to Behavioral and Brain Sciences, PMLA, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is currently Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor of the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, and lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Lee Hoffer is a cultural / medical anthropologist who does research on illegal drug use and substance use disorder. His work has informed a range of topics, including; HIV risk behaviors of drug injectors, understanding the misuse of medications, the diagnosis of substance use disorders, drug policy and community-based intervention studies. His research currently focuses on understanding, monitoring, and predicting trends in drug use, as well as studying how illicit drug markets, and drug acquisition, influence the lives of people who use drugs. In addition to his research endeavors, Dr. Hoffer has on-going collaborations with and provides technical support services to local community health care providers seeking to reduce the harms associated with drug use.
* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
September 22: Forty Years of AIDS Research and Care. With Michael M. Lederman, MD, LSMFT, Scott R. Inkley Emeritus Professor of Medicine.
September 29: Why Not to Panic About A.I. With Kalle Lyytinen, Ph.D., Iris S. Wolstein Professor of Management Design. Alternate Room: Mather House 100
October 6: COVID-’23 and Beyond. With David H. Canaday, MD, Professor of Infectious Disease and Associate Director of Research for the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Cleveland VA.
October 13: To Be Determined. Alternate Room: Mather House 100
October 20: One Semester Away from Crisis: Small Colleges and American Higher Education. With Tom Bogart, Ph.D., Visiting Professor and Chair, Department of Economics. Alternate Room: Mather House 100
October 27: Storefronts, Communities, and the Changing World of Retail. With Michael Goldberg, Associate Professor of Design and Innovation; Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship.
November 3: Dobbs and Doctors. With David N. Hackney MD, Division Director, Maternal Fetal Medicine, University Hospitals of Cleveland.
November 10: Who’s Legally Responsible When “Self-Driving” Cars Go “Eyes Off?” With Cassandra Burke Robertson, JD, John Deaver Drinko – BakerHostetler Professor of Law.
November 17: To Be Determined.
November 24: Thanksgiving Break
December 1: Civil-Military Relations in Egypt. With Dina Rashed, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College for Academic Affairs, University of Chicago.
December 8: To Be Determined. |
