Rebalancing Drug Policy

A special Nation forum, with contributions from Ethan Nadelmann, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, Tracy Velázquez, David Cole and Laura Carlsen.

Various Contributors

Breaking the Taboo

The prospects for reforming drug policy have never been so good.

Ethan Nadelmann

Beyond the Fair Sentencing Act

Congress's vote to scale back mandatory sentences for federal crack cocaine offenses was a watershed in the long campaign for better drug policy.

Marc Mauer

Decriminalizing Poverty

America doesn't have a drug problem. It has a poverty problem.

Bruce Western

The Verdict on Drug Courts

Drug courts have helped some addicts recover. But they may be delaying expansion of treatment programs that will best reduce harms from addiction.

Tracy Velázquez

Restoring Lost Liberties

The drug war has been waged not only on traffickers and users but on liberty and equality.

David Cole

A New Model for Mexico

The problem with the drug war in Mexico is not that it's unfunded. It's unwinnable.

Laura Carlsen

Altered State: California’s Pot Economy

Despite the defeat of Proposition 19, growers in California are expanding a profitable system for cultivating pot.

Sasha Abramsky

Questions for the Drug Czar

Sasha Abramsky

Budding Prospects: Youth Activists Push Marijuana Reform

Fueled by serious funds, young advocates of legalization are poised for big gains.

Aaron Houston

Obama’s Drug War

The administration is promoting failed law enforcement programs as economic stimulus.

Michelle Alexander

As Juárez Falls

The killing in Juárez bears less resemblance to warfare between cartels than to criminal anarchy.

Ed Vulliamy

The Wachovia Whistleblower

Ed Vulliamy

First, They Came for WikiLeaks. Then…

WikiLeaks has embraced the ethics that guide traditional news outlets' disclosure of secrets. It should be afforded the same protections.

the Editors

Tax Cuts Forever?

Republicans have spent their postelection victory lap fearmongering over the deficit. But now they've insisted all Bush tax cuts be extended, at great price to the national debt.

Chris Hayes

Noted.

Liza Featherstone on the class action gender discrimination suit against Wal-Mart; John Nichols on net neutrality

Various Contributors

WikiLeaking Covert Wars

The latest WikiLeaks dump has corroborated, in part, what sources recently told The Nation about covert military actions in over seventy-five countries.

Jeremy Scahill

GOP Monkey-Wrench Gang

If Obama is looking for a reason to scale back his foreign policy ambitions, the GOP takeover of the House is the perfect excuse.

Bob Dreyfuss

The Republican View on Extending All the Bush Tax Cuts

Reaganomics makes a comeback.

Calvin Trillin

Lessons From WikiLeaks

The Internet is critically vulnerable to capricious government shutdown.

Alexander Cockburn

Spread the Joy

Time again for the holiday gift guide.

Katha Pollitt

The Great Squid Hunt: On Matt Taibbi

In Griftopia Matt Taibbi argues that America has been corrupted by the merger of crime and policy, of stealing and government.

Chris Lehmann

Take the Back Seat: On Chinese Consumerism

Can the world sustain a country the size of China with an appetite for the good things in life on par with America's?

Richard McGregor

Kilito’s Way: On Abdelfattah Kilito

In The Clash of Images Abdelfattah Kilito creates a touching portrait of a young man coming of age in French-occupied Morocco.

Laila Lalami

Exchange: ‘Hit Piece’ by a ‘Takedown Artist’

Our Readers and David Wallace-Wells

Puzzle No. 1613

This puzzle appeared originally in the December 27, 1975, issue.

Frank W. Lewis