Draft Two: Conclusions

5. Conclusions

“With apprehension as well as relief the public asks: What shall replace national prohibition?” -- Fosdick and Scott, 1933, page 5.

One of the barriers to ending drug prohibition is the breadth of the possible meanings of “legalization.” The purpose of this paper is to explore two elements of regulatory systems – buyer licensing and self-exclusion – that can be helpful components of drug control and offer some assurance that drug legalization does not imply free availability. These types of regulations offer assistance to those who are worried about self-control problems with drugs, while not being significantly constraining upon those who are informed and satisfied drug consumers.

Licensing can be used to promote, in relative terms, milder forms of drug use: opium tea instead of smoking, opium instead of heroin, and so on. License tests can help make sure that users are informed of drug dangers and procedures for dealing with problems of overdose or addiction, and license revocation can provide an additional sanction for drug-related misbehavior. In short, relative to prohibition, licensing and self-exclusion can be part of a drug regulatory structure that is much more finely tuned to the risks of harm.