Update on Draft 4.2

In the previous update on Draft Four I noted that things would probably go slowly, as I was slated to be away for more than two weeks. Well, I am back now, and not fully happy to report that my prediction has been borne out. I have finally read Draft Four straight through, and was disappointed to find it so in need of improvement and even cogency. I have started to make the first round of changes in those directions, and hope to go through another round this week.

The Five Drafts reader might recall that when we last checked in, there were three books under siege. They are:

(1) Last Call, by Daniel Okrent, 2010;

(2) Carrots and Sticks, by Ian Ayres, 2010, and

(3) Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Mark A.R. Kleiman, Jonathan P. Caulkins, and Angela Hawken, 2011.

Only book (3) made the trip with me, and my suspicion that it would be an easy read proved to be justified -- I completed it. It's written for an interested but not necessarily professional audience, and it comes in easy-to-digest bite-sized portions, due to the adoption of a catechismal style. Professionals (or people who work to some extent in drug policy, like me) will find value in Drugs and Drug Policy, too, in part because the scope of the book will cover some new ground for most of these readers, and because it will be the book to reference when referring to a particular point or argument with respect to drug policy. Indeed, I had already started to use it in that fashion for Draft Four, and more such uses will emerge in Draft Five.

So the coming week involves more of that continuous improvement plan, an intention to finish reading Carrots and Sticks, while making some progress on Last Call. I have in mind a new book to add to the Five Drafts reading pile but do not want to take on the full "public" commitment at this point. I am a commitment-phobe?