The Vera Institute of Justice has released a new podcast on the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Crime Bill. The four-episode podcast is hosted by journalist Josie Duffy Rice. It looks at the legislation’s impact and examines where mass incarceration in America is today. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Teaching materials
Drugs on the Docket Season 2
The Drugs on the Docket podcast is back with Season 2! The six episodes, all available to stream now, unpack ATF sting operations, the history of drug abolitionist policies and constitutional law, the revival of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, compassionate release and the 2018 First Step Act, the role of law enforcement in harm reduction, the relationship between stigma and substance use, 2024 SCOTUS decisions impacting drug policy, and more.
Guests include Alison Siegler and Erica Zunkel of the University of Chicago, Tasha Perdue of The Ohio State University, Sydney Silverstein of Wright State University, David Pozen of Columbia University, the Honorable Carlton W. Reeves, Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and Chris Geidner of Law Dork News.
The Drugs on the Docket podcast is back with bonus episodes
In our first bonus episode, host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman look back at Season 1 Episode 1. The episode provides updates and insights into the continued struggle to change the crack to powder cocaine ratio from 18:1 to 1:1 and further reduce unwarranted sentencing disparities.
Teaching Drugs: Incorporating Drug Policy into Law School Curriculum, 2022–2023 Cannabis Curriculum Survey Update
This report, by Ohio State’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, marks their fifth annual survey of courses focusing on cannabis law offered by accredited law schools. The survey shows a slow but steady increase in the number of law schools offering courses on cannabis law, including law schools located in states that have legalized adult-use cannabis.
Drug Enforcement and Policy Center launches Drugs on the Docket podcast
Drugs on the Docket is a production of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center (DEPC) at The Ohio State University. Each episode explores how U.S. court rulings—primarily those handed down from the Supreme Court—impact drug law and policy and continue to shape the War on Drugs. Drugs on the Docket unpacks various ways courts have engaged with and responded to the opioid epidemic, police discretion, the sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine, and more. The series, hosted by Hannah Miller, invites guests with expertise in criminal justice, drug policy, and drug enforcement to help us break down the sometimes complex and always interesting stories behind today’s drug law landscape.
All six episodes are available now on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and YouTube.
“Higher” Education: Trends and Issues in University Cannabis Programming
This new white paper from the Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation (CFCR) focuses on the emergence of cannabis-focused curriculum in higher education. The report was prepared by Moritz College of Law students Jake Avetisian and Ross Stone for CFCR.
Teaching Drugs: Incorporating Drug Policy into Law School Curriculum, 2021–2022 Cannabis Curriculum Survey Update
This report by Ohio State’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center marks their fourth annual survey of courses focusing on cannabis law offered by accredited law schools. The report confirms that law schools are adjusting very slowly to the new legal environment of cannabis.
DRAE’s Syllabus-Sharing Project
This is a resource by the Drug Policy Alliance in their Department of Research and Academic Engagement where academics from various disciplines can share and view each other’s syllabi. Those who are interested can request access to the private drive and submit their own syllabi to be included in the drive as well.
Safety First
Safety First: Real Drug Education for Teens by the Drug Policy Alliance is the nation’s first harm reduction-based drug education curriculum for young people in the United States. The free curriculum consists of 15 lessons that can be completed in a 45- to 50-minute class period.
Fees, Fines, and the Funding of Public Services: A Curriculum for Reform
“Knowledge of subnational systems of taxing and budgeting and of fiscal policymaking processes can be put to use to reduce and to end governments’ reliance on user fees for courts and for other aspects of criminal systems. This reader aims to help experts in public finance to understand the misuse of court-based assessments which are regressive revenue streams…. These materials interact with ongoing seminars, sometimes virtual, to link people experts in public finance with their counterparts seeking to reform unfair monetary sanctions. Through monographs such as this, we hope to support work underway to shape just and equitable revenue-generation mechanisms that avoid imposing harmful costs on vulnerable individuals, families, and communities.”