High time for drug policy reform. Part 1/4: Introduction and cause summary

Abstract

In the last 4 months, I’ve come to believe drug policy reform, changing the laws on currently illegal psychoactive substances, may offer a substantial, if not the most substantial, opportunity to increase the happiness of humans alive today. I consider this result very surprising. I’ve been researching how best to improve happiness (i.e. increase happiness whilst people are alive) for nearly 2 years. When I argued effective altruism (‘EA’) was overlooking mental health and happiness a year ago, drug reform featured nowhere in my analysis, nor had I heard anyone (inside or outside EA) suggest it was seriously important. This is the first in a series of four posts for the EA forum where I examine drug policy reform (‘DPR’) and explain why I think it should be taken seriously. I don’t claim to know all the empirical facts, nor do I claim to have a fully considered set of suggestions for what to do next. I wanted to share the problem with others as I’ve reached the limits of my knowledge and expertise on the topic and hope other brains can help.[1]