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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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"Offensive Behaviour" at Cambridge University
Don Barnard Press Release
Wednesday 22 Oct 2003 Press release for information FORWARD PLANNING? A conference in the philosophy of criminal law "Offensive Behaviour" is to beheld at Cambridge University on 25-26 October. Douglas Husak Professor of Philosophy and Law at Rutgers University, has been invited to attending this conference. Who is Professor Husak! Professor Douglas Husak is author of "Drugs and Rights" (Cambridge University Press, 1992), " Philosophy of Criminal Law.." And "Legalise This! the case for decriminalizing drugs" Professor Husak VITA at http://www.lca-uk.org/leaflets/vita.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Format - 11 Pages - 33K NOTE: Professor Husak played basketball for the All-Great Britain University team in 1969. **Might be others of note attending! Conference organiser is Andrew von Hirsch at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. All contacts are made through his secretary, Helen Griffiths (hmg27@cam.ac.uk). Legalise This!" http://www.lca-uk.org/legalizethis.php (also 1 below). Is part of Virso publications Practical Ethics Series [See 2 below, Practical Ethics; Series Editor: Colin McGinn]. The Economist gave a short but nice "review" http://www.economist.com/books/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=3D1270531 For your convienence: SNIP ".... But international policy on drugs is dictated by the United States, and for a taste of American attitudes, turn to Douglas Husak, a philosopher who is infuriated by his country's draconian drug laws. The sheer scale of incarceration of drug users "makes prohibition the worst injustice perpetrated by our system of criminal law in the 20th century," he argues. The figures bear out his horror: nearly one prisoner in four in America is locked up for a non-violent drug offence, and drug crimes now often receive harsher punishments than violent assaults, rapes or murders. Such disproportion rightly infuriates Mr Husak. Step by step, he destroys many of the arguments used by the law's defenders. Sometimes, demolition is easy, as in the case of William Bennett, America's first drug tsar, who said: "The simple fact is that drug use is wrong. And the moral argument, in the end, is the most compelling argument." Even if moral truths were simple and we could all agree on them, it is a glaring non sequitur to insist that immorality should therefore be criminalised. Mr Husak's destruction job is elegantly argued and philosophically informed. Will common sense win? Will drugs one day be as available as tea? Mr Husak reminds us of Senator Morris Sheppard's jut-jawed prediction, three years before prohibition's repeal, that the re-legalisation of alcohol sales was as likely as a humming bird's flying to the planet Mars "with the Washington Monument tied to its tail." [Quotation from page 122] *Legalize This! The Case for Decriminalizing Drugs* by Douglas Husak, a professor of Philosophy and Law at Rutgers University. Prohibitionists pretend to occupy the moral high ground in debates about illicit drug use. Unlike their opponents, they profess to stand up against immorality. Those who oppose criminalization are seemingly placed in the uncomfortable and awkward position of condoning behaviour that is suspect from a moral point of view. The moral high ground should not be conceded to those who favor prohibition. Disagreement about the immorality of recreational drug use is reasonable. But there can be no disagreement about the immorality of punishing people without excellent reasons to do so. Punishment is the most powerful weapon available to the state, and we must always be vigilant to ensure that it is not inflicted without adequate justification. The entire thrust of this book is that this weapon is invoked without good reason against recreational drug users. If I am correct, prohibitionists are more clearly guilty of immorality than their opponents. The wrongfulness of recreational drug use, if it exists at all, pales against the immorality of punishing drug users. In chapter 1, I related anecdotes to describe the immorality of criminalization in personal terms. In chapter 3, I will argue that the immorality of prohibition affects us all, users and non-users alike. How much harm to drug users and to society are prohibitionists willing to tolerate in their efforts to prevent people from using drugs? I conclude that those who punish drug users perpetrate a far greater immorality than those who use drugs. NOTE: Legalise Cannabis Alliance representative[s] and other UK drug law reformers including Mathew Southwell (National Drug Developement Agency) are meeting up with Professor Husak on Sunday evening 10/26 to discuss mutual interests and exchange of information. ****IF, you are interested in following this up? For Professor Husak UK Itinerary [See 3 below]. For interviews/appointments with Professor Husak: Contact Don Barnard: donbarnard@lca-uk.org Phone 07984 255015 Your contact for UK publisher VERSO is: Fiona Price 020 74373546 fionap@verso.co.uk Don Barnard of the Legalise Cannabis Party said: " To date, in a debate that asks whether cannabis use ought to be decriminalised or legalised, those who support current policies need not utter a single word in its defence. They can simply sit back and wait for their opponents to make predictions, and then challenge the accuracy of those predictions - WHY IS THIS? Professor Husak argues we cannot hope to make any progress on any topic unless we begin by asking the right question. Husak asks what he calls his basic question: Not whether we should have a crime of drug use? But, whether the criminal law should punish people simply for using a drug - Should drug users be punished? Mr Barnard said: "I agree, the debate cannot proceed sensibly unless it begins with good reasons in favour of punishing people who use cannabis...and, like Professor Husak, the LCA are concerned by the failure of our current democratic institutions to address these issues." The LCA document Challenge to the Criminal Justice System is designed to assist people in their deliberations. http://www.lca-uk.org/challenge.php Mr Barnard said: "If we continue to emulate the failed drug strategy of the USA , Legalise This! is a disturbing insight to our future. "Reading the book should clarify the case for decriminalisation and legalisation even for those who have studied the issues, and provide much improved anti-prohibitionist statements and arguments for lecturers, essayists, and writers on the subject. "It's essential reading for parents, teachers, politicians. And, those carrying out central governments anti-drug strategy....Most important it predicts our future!" Kind regards Don Barnard Press Officer Legalise Cannabis Alliance PO BOX 198 Norwich NR3 3WB donbarnard@lca-uk.org Phone 07984 255015 http://www.lca-uk.org NOTES: LEGALIZE THIS! The case for decriminalizing drugs Douglas Husak Douglas Husak's book is a systematic, careful and well-informed discussion of our current punitive treatment of those who use and distribute illegal drugs. His central argument is that current drug laws are seriously unjust to those they punish. Such laws must therefore be repealed, since no law can afford to be found guilty of injustice. Drawing telling analogies with the earlier prohibition of alcohol, Husak shows the futility and oppressiveness that comes with the attempt to control the use of drugs with punitive measures. He cites devastating statistics about the harm that incarceration of drug users brings, compared to the harm done by drugs themselves. He also notes the obvious conflict between the legal tolerance of tobacco users and the heavy-handed treatment of addicts of illegal drugs. The book exposes the hypocrisies and confusions that infect our legal system, and makes a powerful arid passionate case for the position that drug laws constitute a major moral blot on the landscape. The only way to rid our society of these unjust arrangements, Husak argues, is to legalise all drugs. Douglas Husak is Professor of' Philosophy and Law at Rutgers university. He is the author of Drugs and Rights and Philosophy of Criminal Law. NOTE: Professor Husak VITA at http://www.lca-uk.org/leaflets/vita.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Format - 11 Pages - 33Kb LEGALIZE THIS! The case for decriminalizing drugs Douglas Husak Available from the LCA: Legalise Cannabis Alliance, PO Box 198. Norwich. NR3 3WB http://www.lca-uk.org Papereback. Price: =A312-OO+=A31.00pp 2] Introduction to LEGALIZE THIS! The case for decriminalizing drugs Practical Ethics Series Editor: Colin McGinn The world is confronted by large ethical problems, into which political, economic and historical issues are intertwined: terrorism, inequality, poverty, health care, drugs, racism privacy, execution, abortion, and so on. Public discussion of these issues tends to fall into two categories: the journalistic and the academic. The journalistic discussions are apt to be brief, superficial, ephemeral, and poorly reasoned. The academic discussions are too narrow, specialized. and, well, academic. What is needed is a type of treatment that is accessible as well as informed, deep without being obscure, expert without being pedantic. This new series is intended to fulfil that mandate. It will address substantial issues, with real-world implications in a voice that anyone can understand, but it will not shirk the complexities of the subject. Nor will it be partisan or political in motivation; the aim is an impartial, though principled, treatment that is fair to all perspectives. But it will also seek to advocate and persuade-not by rhetoric, but by force of argument and fact. It is possible to discuss these important issues in a rational and objective manner, without sacrificing passion and commitment. The larger aim of the series, then, is to encourage a higher standard of public debate about issues that affect everyone - to lift discussion above the din of talk-show shouters and sound-bite politicians. The values by which the series will abide are clarity. fairness, accuracy, and justice. it will also bring out the centrality of philosophical understanding to issues of urgent practical import. [Practical Ethics Series Editor: Cohn McGinn Paperback 1SBN: 185984320 3] Professor Husak is expecting be arriving at Cambridge, in the early afternoon of Friday, 10/24. The (invited) workshop / conference at Cambridge ( takes place the weekend of the 25th and 26th. The workshop itself will be at the Moller Centre in Cambridge. I think the Centre is part of Churchill College. Professor Husak will be staying at the Cambridge Lodge Hotel on Friday night, and the Moller Center Saturday and Sunday nights. He will be leaving, [stc] from Gatwick at 4:00 on Monday, 10/27. For interviews/appointments with Professor Husak: Contact Don Barnard: donbarnard@lca-uk.org Phone 07984 255015
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