Drug-War Critic to Talk on Legalization Alternative
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, will talk on "The Drug War" on Wednesday, April 15. The event will be held in Griffin Hall, Room 3, at 7:30 p.m. on the Williams College campus.A critic of Washington's three-decade war on drugs, Carpenter advocates legalization as the best possible solution to the drug problem in the United States. He believes that any perceived decline in the number of drug users as a result of past policies has come with a cost.
"We have filled our prisons with drug offenders — and diverted criminal justice resources and personnel away from serious crimes to wage the drug war," said Carpenter. "Washington's supply-side campaign was meant to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But — the evidence is glaringly clear — that campaign has not worked, is not working and, given economic realities, will not work."
Carpenter calls for a reassessment of current drug policies and an end to the economic distortions perpetuated by the "foolish policies adopted in Washington and the drug-source countries themselves."
Cato is named for "Cato's Letters," the series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Cato is a non-profit public policy research foundation with a mission "to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace" and to "disseminate applicable policy proposals that create free, open, and civil societies throughout the world."
Carpenter has written eight books and edited 10 others on international affairs, including "Smart Power: Toward A Prudent Foreign Policy for America" and "Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America." He is a contributing author to The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He is frequent guest on radio and television programs worldwide.
Carpenter is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the editorial boards of Mediterranean Quarterly and the Journal of Strategic Studies.
He received his master's degree in U.S. diplomatic history from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and his doctorate from the University of Texas.
This event is sponsored by the Program in Political Economy.
