The following studies are the most significant studies of drug policy ever conducted. All of these studes recommended decriminalization. The overwhelming weight of the scholarly evidence on drug policy supports decrimnalization.

The LaGuardia Committee Report, commissioned by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, written by the New York Academy of Medicine, and published by the City of New York in 1944.

The Baroness Wootton Report, published by the government of the United Kingdom in 1967.

The Report of the Canadian Government commissione of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, published by the Canadian Government in 1969.

Dealing With Drug Abuse. A Report to the Ford Foundation, published by the Drug Abuse Servey Project in 1972.

The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs, published by the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine in 1972. This is a landmark study, a "must-read", used as a basic textbook at major universities.

The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, commissioned by President Nixon, and published by the U.S. Federal Government in 1973.

The Nation's Toughest Drug Law: Evaluating the New York Experience, published by the Joint Committee on New York Drug Law Evaluation, of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in 1977.

The Facts About Drug Abuse, published by the National Rescarch Council in 1980.

An Analvsis of Marijuana Policy, published by the National Rescarch Council of the National Academy of Sciences in 1982.

The Report of the California State Research Advisory Panel, commissioned by the State of California and published in 1990.

The reconumendations in these reports were endorsed by (among others) the American Medical Association, the american Bar Association. The American Association for Publich Health, the National Education Association, and the National Council of Churches.

In 1988, in a case involving the medical use of marijuana is "probably the safest therapeutically active substance known to man."

In addition, you may want to refer to:

The American Disease: The Origins of Narcotics Control, by Dr. David F. Musto, published in 1972. This is an excellent history of the narcotics laws.