In the U.S., federal sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses operate based on drug type and quantity. The most common category of federal drug offenders found with large quantities of powder cocaine are ‘boat defendants’—poor, unarmed foreign nationals detained at sea. When professors Kendra McSweeney and Mat Coleman dug into the sentencing data for this rare type of drug courier, they uncovered a profound justice policy story. In this episode, Host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman speak with Ohio State Geography Professors McSweeney and Coleman about what we can learn from this remarkable set of drug defendants.

McSweeney is a professor and distinguished scholar, and Coleman is a professor and department chair, both in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University.

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In this episode, Host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman speak with NYU law professor Rachel Barkow about her latest book, Justice Abandoned. Barkow presents a powerful critique of the Supreme Court’s role in perpetuating mass incarceration by failing to enforce key constitutional protections. She offers insights into how the justice system got here—from the political climate of the late 1960s to the rise of the war on drugs—and how judicial appointments can shape the future of criminal justice reform.

Barkow is the Charles Seligson Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. She also serves as the faculty director of the Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at NYU and served as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission from 2013 to 2019.

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In this episode of Drugs on the Docket, Udi Ofer—renowned human rights lawyer and founding director of Princeton’s Policy Advocacy Clinic—shares insights on training the next generation of policy advocates and navigating bipartisan criminal justice reform. From the EQUAL Act to sentencing disparities, Ofer joins hosts Hannah Miller and Douglas Berman to provide a compelling look at how policy advocacy can shape the future of criminal justice reform.

Ofer is Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, James L. Weinberg Visiting Professor, and Lecturer in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

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In October 2022, President asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to review how marijuana is scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This sparked a multi-step formal rulemaking process that is ongoing.

In this episode we showcase a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center on April 8, 2025. The panel of experts and former government officials explained the rescheduling process thus far and addressed how marijuana policy may change under the Trump Administration.

Bridget Dooling is Assistant Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and former Deputy Chief for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Matt Lawrence is Associate Professor at Emory University School of Law and former Senior Advisor with the Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice. Cat Packer is a Distinguished Cannabis Policy Practitioner in Residence at The Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, Director of Drug Markets and Legal Regulation at Drug Policy Alliance, and former Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation. Patricia J. Zettler is John W. Bricker Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and former Deputy General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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In the first episode of Season 3, returning guests Doug Passon and Mark Allenbaugh join hosts Hannah Miller and Douglas Berman to examine the legacy of United States v. Booker, the landmark Supreme Court case that 20 years ago transformed the federal sentencing guidelines from mandatory to advisory. They discuss the impact of Booker on judicial discretion, federal drug sentencing, and legislative action to amend the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s sentencing guidelines. The episode also touches on the February 5th Justice Department Memos from Attorney General Pam Bondi and their possible impact on the number and length of criminal drug sentences, as well as what, if any, influence an Obama-era clemency project might have on the current administration’s Office of the Pardon Attorney in light of a Bureau of Prisons capacity crisis.

Passon is a criminal defense lawyer of over twenty-five years, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and host of the Set for Sentencing podcast. Allenbaugh is an attorney and entrepreneur with nationally-recognized expertise in federal sentencing, law, policy, and practice, and is a co-founder of Sentencing Stats, LLC. 

Host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman, executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, speak with journalist and Moritz College of Law alum, Chris Geidner. Geidner publishes Law Dork, which provides wide-ranging legal reporting and analysis of U.S. trial and appellate courts as well as the Supreme Court. In this episode, Geidner offers his insights into a number of 2024 SCOTUS decisions and ruminates with Doug Berman about their potential impacts on current and future drug policy and cases.

Host Hannah Miller and co-host Doug Berman, executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, speak with the Honorable Judge Carlton W. Reeves, Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission and U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi. Judge Reeves discusses his role as Chair of the Sentencing Commission and the recent activities of the Commission, including efforts taken to reform the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

In this episode, host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman, executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, speak with author and professor David Pozen to discuss his new book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs. In this groundbreaking work, Pozen provides a comparative history lesson on U.S. court cases in which constitutional arguments for drug-rights were or were not employed, explains how the Constitution helped to legitimate and entrench punitive drug policy, and offers a constitutional roadmap to drug policy reform that may yet prevail in an increasingly originalist-leaning federal court system.

 David Pozen is Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

Host Hannah Miller sits down with guests Tasha Perdue and Sydney Silverstein to discuss their recent research centering on the overdose crisis, the relationship between stigma, substance use, and treatment, Good Samaritan laws, and the role of law enforcement in harm reduction efforts.

Tasha Perdue is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs and affiliated faculty member of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center; Sydney Silverstein is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Interventions, Treatment, and Addictions Research (CITAR) in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University.

Host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman, executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, continue their conversation with Alison Siegler and Erica Zunkel. Part 2 covers how the University of Chicago Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic pushed the boundaries of criminal defense and leveraged the First Step Act to secure compassionate release for stash house defendants who were not part of the clinic’s “criminal class action” litigation.

Alison Siegler is Clinical Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School; Erica Zunkel is Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School and teaches in the school’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic.