Dr. Peter Reuter recently co-authored an editorial in Scientific American with Dr. Jonathan Caulkins titled “Stopping Fentanyl at the Border Won’t Work. We Must Reimagine Drug Law Enforcement.” In the piece, Dr. Caulkins and Dr. Reuter address the “decades-long crisis” where opioid addiction and the continued smuggling of illegally manufactured fentanyl into the United States critically impacts individuals, families, and communities. Acknowledging the present difficulties associated with drug law enforcement, the authors encourage “collective discussion pursued with open minds and few preconceptions,” and further, they offer examples of potential strategies for ‘re-envisioning drug law enforcement in the age of fentanyl.”

Click here to read the full editorial.

Dr. Reuter is a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. In November 2018, he was declared as one of two awardees for the 2019 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the leading prize in the field. Much of his research has dealt with alternative approaches to controlling drug problems, both in the United States and Western Europe. In recent years Reuter has also been publishing on money laundering control and on the flows of illicit funds from developing nations. Reuter founded and directed RAND’s Drug Policy Research Center from 1989-1993. From 2007-2011 Reuter served as the first president of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy. He also served as editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management from 1999 to 2004. He has chaired three panels for the National Academy of Sciences.