Drugs on the Docket

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.

Host Hannah Miller and co-host Douglas Berman, executive director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, kick off Season 2 with guests Alison Siegler and Erica Zunkel from the University of Chicago. Part 1 of this two-part episode focuses on clients ensnared in undercover stash house sting operations carried out by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and how the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School sought to prove that the ATF violated the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of race when selecting its targets.

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.

Host Hannah Miller and co-host Doug Berman round out our first set of bonus episodes with an update to Season 1 Episode 6. Listen as they discuss recent state-level court rulings regarding probable cause in response to increasing marijuana legalization across the U.S. They also dig into the way culture can influence both what we see as acceptable behavior in our communities and police interactions.

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Host Hannah Miller and co-host Doug Berman are taking a second look at Season 1 Episode 5, the United States Sentencing Commission, and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Listen as they discuss an amendment to the current sentencing guidelines, the research that led to this policy change, and the impact the amendment could have on thousands of incarcerated individuals.

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Host Hannah Miller and co-host Doug Berman reflect on Season 1 Episode 4, and delve further into the history and inequitable application of mandatory minimum sentences and current legislative efforts to improve the federal legal system. Listen as they explore the upcoming case before SCOTUS, Pulsifer v. United States, and its potential to widen or narrow the safety valve through which thousands of federal defendants could find some relief from their mandatory minimum sentences.

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Host Hannah Miller and co-host Doug Berman look back at Season 1 Episode 3, and discuss what a new Chief Justice for the Ohio Supreme Court could signal about the court’s interest in reentry efforts. They also unpack a provision from Ohio Senate Bill 288 that allows prosecutors to apply for expungement on behalf of those with some low-level marijuana possession offenses.

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