Courses

Thomas Savidge

Program Associate

Mercatus Center

Thomas Savidge is a student pursuing a Masters in Public Policy at Schar School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Thomas graduated from State University of New York, New Paltz with a BA in political science and philosophy in 2015. He is currently also a MPP student in public policy at George Mason University. His research interests include state and local policy and drug policy.

Blog Posts

The right drug policy: decriminalize and discourage

November 18, 2016
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War on Drugs

This piece is a reaction to an earlier piece on drug prohibition by Audrey Redford. The writing is on the wall for drug prohibition: it has utterly failed to stop people from using drugs, and Americans in four more states just voted to simply legalize recreational marijuana. Does this mean we should also legalize hard drugs like crack cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine in the same manner? I think there is a better way. Yes, prohibition does not work, but we need to take a more nuanced approach to decriminalizing and handling illicit drugs. Yes, prohibition fails horribly I