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Facts Do Matter: A Reply to Professor Wisotsky
Duke, Steven
Duke, Steven
Abstract
Although he agrees that the "drug war is an indefensible disaster that harms almost everyone," Professor Wisotsky opines that my article, Drug Prohibition: An Unnatural Disaster' is "the wrong argument at the wrong time," because, he says, the issue has nothing to do with facts? A "rational approach" has no "potential to make a difference" where drugs are concerned because "people, even policy makers, are not driven by fact and knowledge, but by values and symbols." "[T]he drug debate," he declares, "is not and has never been about facts or evidence.' "[D]ecades of relentless anti-drug propaganda have deprived the public and its officials of their powers of critical thinking on this subject."