Contributions by ‘Matthew B. Lawrence’

This Review describes and applauds David Pozen’s book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs, and offers its own intervention. Scholars have traced the failed addiction policies exemplified by the “war on drugs” to underlying root causes including racism, politics, and moral stigma. The core contribution of The Constitution of the War on Drugs is to show that constitutional law is an additional such root cause. The book does so by unearthing ways the Constitution has accepted and abetted carceral addiction policy. In pointing to constitutional law as a root cause of the drug war and, so, as a potential site for contestation against carceral drug policy, the book connects criminal law, health law, and constitutional law in ways that should enrich all three fields.