Book Description

The new casebook by Alex Kreit, Illegal Drug and Marijuana Law, published in 2019, substantially revises and updates Controlled Substances. Drug offenders are a ubiquitous part of our criminal justice system. Approximately 1.5 million Americans were arrested for a drug offense in 2011, more than for any other single category of crime. Drug convictions have fueled an explosion in our prison population with drug offenders constituting nearly one quarter of our prison population. Indeed, with the number of Americans incarcerated for a drug offense today larger than the entire United States prison and jail population in 1980, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the single most important development within the field of criminal law over the past four decades has been the war on drugs. Controlled Substances: Crime, Regulation, and Policy provides a comprehensive overview of the many fascinating issues of law and policy related to the criminalization and regulation of illegal drugs. The book begins with materials on the debate about prohibition and its alternatives, with a particular focus on the modern "war on drugs" model of prohibition. After establishing this foundation, the book turns its attention to the drug laws themselves, taking an in-depth look at controlled substances offenses, drug sentencing, and the investigation of drug crimes. The book then considers the body of administrative law that governs the classification of controlled substances and the use and distribution of controlled substance for medical purposes. Finally, the book concludes with an overview of international and comparative issues in drug law.