Following the debates on national issues of gay marriage and gun control, visiting professor Jonathan Caulkins brought the issue of legalizing marijuana to campus with his lecture “Legalizing Marijuana: Policy Analysis, the U.S. Government and Insights.”

Caulkin, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the co-author of “Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know,” started his lecture with a review of the importance of the major points of the marijuana debate before providing raw data on point.

“My job here isn’t to provide support for or against marijuana,” explained Caulkin, who strove to remain neutral throughout the lecture. “My purpose is to inform people on the facts surrounding the debate so they can make their own opinions.”

According to Caulkin, the production cost of legalized marijuana would bring the commercial cost of the inexpensively produced plant virtually to zero, with joints costing an average of a nickel. Subsidies and substantial taxation would be needed to keep the prices competitive.

After the first half of the lecture, Caulkin focused predominantly on the interactions at the state and federal level. Though the Obama administration has yet to provide an opinion on legalization, Caulkin explained that law enforcement on the federal level would be unable to cope with arresting marijuana users and would have to rely on deputized landlords if they hope to still enforce the federal law in decriminalized states.

The lecture, which attracted a modest crowd, was well received by the students in attendance.

“I thought it was a pretty interesting lecture,” explained Ian Cullen ’16. “It covered a wide array of topics that deserve to be heard.”

Caulkins currently teaches at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University under the H. Guyford Stever Professorship of Operations Research and Public Policy. He has served as the co-director of the RAND Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center in Santa Monica and founder of their Drug Policy Research Center in Pittsburgh.

The lecture was co-hosted by the College Democrats, Students for a Sustainable Drug Policy and the Public Affairs Committee.

For more information on Caulkins, visit his staff profile at www.heinz.cmu.edu.