Innehållsförteckning för December 2024 från Reason

YOU HAVE PROBABLY never heard of 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI), much less worried about its possible abuse. Yet the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wants to ban this synthetic psychedelic, a promising research chemical used in more than 900 published studies, by placing it in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), which defeated a previous DEA attempt to ban DOI in 2022, is determined to stop the agency’s interference with science again. A DEA administrative law judge has scheduled a 10-day hearing on the proposed ban, beginning on November 12. SSDP, which filed a prehearing statement on behalf of more than 20 scientists, argues that placing DOI in Schedule I would impose “onerous financial and bureaucratic obstacles on researchers.” SSDP also opposes the scheduling of another…

“THEY FIGURED THAT this would shut me down,” says Priscilla Villarreal. “But what they did was create a monster.” Villarreal is a journalist in the Texas border town of Laredo. She is at the center of a legal battle with significant First Amendment implications. Villarreal doesn’t work for a newspaper or magazine, nor does she have a perch at a TV station. Rather, she livestreams her reporting online, infused with her signature profanity-laced commentary. Known in Laredo as “Lagordiloca” (which translates to “the fat, crazy lady”), she’s a celebrity there, famous for her irreverent, muckraking approach, which often sees her broadcasting directly from crime scenes and traffic accidents. In 2024, she announced a write-in campaign for Laredo City Council. Not everyone finds her endearing. In 2017, law enforcement—who had often…

THE PEOPLE WHO created the U.S. Army did not want it to last forever. George Washington, the first commander of the Continental Army, wrote that “a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country,” though he supported a small frontier force. Other Founding Fathers struck similar notes. “Standing armies are dangerous to liberty,” wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 29. “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home,” warned James Madison at the Constitutional Convention. “What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of…

THE IDEA THAT the federal minimum wage should exist in some form may sound beyond debate to most Americans, the vast majority of whom have not lived in a time when it wasn’t a political reality. The debate is arguably settled, but maybe not in the way most think. “There’s a virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage is an idea whose time has passed,” wrote a prominent newspaper’s editorial board a few years back. “Raising the minimum wage by a substantial amount would price working poor people out of the job market…. If a higher minimum means fewer jobs, why does it remain on the agenda of some liberals?” It’s a good question, which The New York Times posed to its readers in January 1987. “The right minimum…

ATOP ONE OF the highest peaks in the eastern United States sits a picturesque example of what America’s national parks could be—if only the government hadn’t effectively outlawed commerce within their boundaries. This is LeConte Lodge, built in 1926 and accessible only by a series of hiking trails that wind up the side of 6,500-foot Mt. LeConte. The Tennessee lodge exists only because it was grandfathered in when the boundaries of Great Smoky Mountains National Park were drawn in 1934. Farmers, logging companies, and other property owners in the area were given the boot. Thankfully, the lodge was allowed to stay. Nearly a century later, it’s time for the federal government to recognize private investment need not be at odds with the goal of protecting nature for future generations. Ending…

EVERYONE LOVES SMALL businesses. But that’s no reason to keep an agency dedicated to extending loans and other privileges to some of them at the expense of everyone else. Contrary to common belief, it is not the role of government to subsidize private companies. This statement is true whether the company is green, minority-owned, small, or gargantuan. Besides, the fetish for small businesses is annoying. Small businesses employ 45.9 percent of American workers, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA). That sounds impressive until you realize that 99.9 percent of businesses in America are small. That means 0.1 percent of businesses in the country employ more than half of the work force. The SBA is mostly useless. No doubt various businesses getting subsidized loans through the agency love it. If…

WHEN THE 21ST Amendment was ratified in 1933, ending America’s “noble experiment” with nationwide alcohol Prohibition, it supposedly meant the federal government was getting out of the business of regulating booze. But few governments willingly give up power, and even fewer give it up absolutely. In 1935, Congress passed the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act), allowing the feds to collect alcohol excise taxes, prevent unfair trade practices, and protect consumers. Determining which agency should administer the FAA Act has been quite a journey—the Internal Revenue Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and, for the last 21 years, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) have all taken turns. But one thing hasn’t changed: The FAA Act still remains the main authorizing legislation empowering…

In a world where traditional sperm banks and fertility clinics are often out of reach due to high costs and strict regulations, hopeful parents are increasingly turning to online forums and Facebook groups to connect with sperm donors—sometimes for free. FX’s Spermworld, a documentary directed by Lance Oppenheim and inspired by a New York Times article called “The Sperm Kings Have a Problem: Too Much Demand,” offers a revealing look into these exchanges. The documentary follows the encounters between sperm donors and recipients, with exchanges often taking place in parking lots, roadside motels, or public bathrooms. No contracts, no professional guidelines, and no legal oversight—just strangers navigating a makeshift fertility system. Hopeful parents turn to these unregulated markets for varied reasons. Some seek cheaper alternatives to clinics, while others prefer…

ACROSS 1. Drains the energy from5. Appropriate response to proposals to abolish Section 2309. Illuminated from below14. Web design unit15. Instrument in the wind section16. Mary Trump, to Donald Trump17. Cabinet department that screwed up FAFSA forms in 202419. Brought along20. Stoneworker21. Rent-___ (payment plan variety)23. To the ___ degree25. Phrase a dishonest politician rarely says out loud27. Institution that usurps banking functions of a free market33. Dallas baller, for short34. That lady35. Reward for a good doggo36. Marshland bird38. Fertility treatment Donald Trump wants the government to pay for40. Anatomical pouches41. Goes under43. Environmentalist’s prefix45. Could possibly46. Federal program due for insolvency by 203351. Special presidential ___ for climate (job currently held by John Podesta)52. Hiddleston or Hardy53. Snake with a hood55. Is first in the lineup59. Youngest of…

IN SEPTEMBER, FOUR astronauts ventured farther away from Earth (870 miles) than any human since the last Apollo mission—and NASA had basically nothing to do with it. Jared Isaacman and his civilian Polaris Dawn crew launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. They tested new spacesuits, they worked on laser tech for Starlink, and, on day three of the five-day journey, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis participated in the first-ever commercial spacewalk.…

IS MOTHERHOOD BAD for women’s careers? Conventional wisdom says “yes,” but a new study suggests “maybe not.” The research comes from the IZA-Institute of Labor Economics, a German think tank seeking “to bridge the divide between science and society through science communication and evidence-based policy advice.” In an April paper titled “Is There Really a Child Penalty in the Long Run? New Evidence from IVF Treatments,” economists Petter Lundborg, Erik Plug, and Astrid Würtz Rasmussen complicate the picture of what happens to women’s earnings after having kids. On average, women in the study did experience a short-term “motherhood penalty” after giving birth. But within a decade, their earnings rebounded. Researchers even found evidence of a small motherhood premium in the long run. Among other limitations, most research on motherhood penalties…

IS THE FILM Night of the Living Dead too racy for daytime television? What about double entendres about “spotted dick” pudding? Or a travel documentary about Paris featuring burlesque dancers and a museum with nude paintings? These were just some of the federal obscenity complaints that made Hot Spring County, Arkansas, the most prudish place in America. The most infamous job of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is to punish obscenity on the airwaves, and it’s always relied on public feedback to do so. In the 1970s, a complaint about George Carlin’s “seven dirty words you can’t say on television” routine led to a Supreme Court ruling allowing the FCC to regulate “obscene, indecent, and profane” content on the airwaves. New technologies have made this power less relevant, since cable…

IT TAKES 10–15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars for a pharmaceutical company to navigate the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory process and bring a new drug to market. Many seriously ill people die waiting for the FDA to approve drugs that regulators in other advanced countries have already approved, a phenomenon called “drug lag.” It is impossible to imagine how many drug remedies remain undiscovered and how many people needlessly suffer because pharmaceutical companies must divert excessive research and development dollars to the drug approval process, a phenomenon called “drug loss.” Congress passed the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) in 1938 to ensure drug safety. The new law exempted drugs people had been using for several years, such as aspirin or regular insulin, from the FDA…

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CITIZENS SURELY EXPECT the government to be on watch against terrorist attacks like 9/11, against destabilizing aggression like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and against clandestine efforts to steal military secrets or undermine our elections. Those are the explicit goals of the 18 secret intelligence agencies in the federal government, but the leading ones are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The mission statement of the CIA “is to preempt threats and further U.S. national security objectives,” while the NSA’s motto is: “Defending Our Nation. Securing the Future.” So far, so good. But secret agencies are fundamentally resistant to oversight, especially by the very governments that create them. The Roman poet Juvenal famously asked, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” That is usually translated as “Who will watch…

“I’M HAVING THE lawyers inquire as to whether or not I can bring a library with me to prison,” Michael Lacey said with resignation. The Backpage cofounder and former alt-weekly magnate was standing in the library of his labyrinthine Paradise Valley, Arizona, home. The room abuts one of Lacey’s two home offices, each teeming with books, family photos, journalism awards, and file folders—a mix of case files and past work he’s been combing through as he works on a book proposal. It was March 2024, and Lacey was still holding out hope of avoiding federal prison. But prosecutors were eager to send him there, and Lacey recognized that may well be his fate. I was there with a Reason video crew, interviewing Lacey for a documentary. This was my second…

“I thought Churchill was the chief villain of the Second World War,” podcaster Darryl Cooper declared to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in September. In July, podcaster Candace Owens said reports of experiments conducted on Holocaust victims sound “like bizarre propaganda.” The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany published a 2020 survey showing a deficiency in Holocaust knowledge among younger Americans. A new approach to preserving the facts of the past is needed. The Netflix docuseries Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial is narrated by William L. Shirer, an American war correspondent and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—despite Shirer dying in 1993. Director Joe Berlinger used an AI recreation of Shirer’s voice to recite passages from his books alongside audio from his actual radio…

What do teen girls with Tourette syndrome–like tics in upstate New York, U.S. military and intelligence officials with an array of mysterious complaints, some victims of mass poisonings in girls schools across Iran, and Salem girls accused of witchcraft have in common? All may have experienced mass psychogenic events—better known as hysteria. All also appear in Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. The teens displaying tics in LeRoy, New York, are the main focus of the show, which takes us on a medical mystery tour of their symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments. Some, including the famed activist Erin Brockovich, suspect environmental causes. Others think it’s the result of an immune system gone haywire. The authorities’ official diagnosis—mass psychogenic illness—doesn’t sit well with many of the patients or…

DESPITE A DECADE of predictions that they were just around the corner, autonomous vehicles that can carry passengers on public roads, no human driver required, have mostly been confined to drawing-board dreams and venture capital–supported pilot programs. The oft-repeated joke is that driverless cars are five years away and they always will be. But in 2024, driverless taxi company Waymo (owned by Google parent company Alphabet) started expanding its limited commercial operations into something that looks a lot like a full-fledged driverless taxi service in multiple cities. The company performs 100,000 rides a week. Safety is obviously the major concern holding back driverless car operations, particularly after an autonomous Uber-operated car with a human test driver in it fatally struck a pedestrian in 2018. But reporter Timothy Lee found that…

LAST YEAR, STUDENT-LED protests over the Israel-Hamas war broke out at dozens of college campuses. With the new school year well underway, student demonstrations have begun again in earnest. While many students expressed their opposition to the war in Gaza through peaceful means, some protests devolved into property destruction, trespassing, and even violence on a handful of college campuses, including at some of America’s most elite universities. Many students erected large encampments claiming public space on campuses—a form of protest that colleges are generally free to limit under reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), attempts to deplatform speakers were surging by this April. Of the 67 attempts it had recorded from January to mid-April, 73 percent involved controversy surrounding the…

ANTITRUST LAW HAS a storied place in modern American history, where it allegedly allowed authorities to thwart big bad monopolies out to bilk and milk consumers. But many of these past victories are more hollow than historic lore lets on. Take the iconic Standard Oil case, launched in 1906. The company would eventually be found guilty of abusing monopoly power in the petroleum industry. But while some of Standard Oil’s practices may have harmed its competitors, they led to lower prices for consumers and a more efficient distribution process. Or take the case where charges were filed in 1937 against the Aluminum Company of America, which had cornered most of the virgin aluminum ingot market. A federal appeals court found the company had not become a monopoly through some nefarious…

IN 1973, THE year the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was born, the federal government counted about three drug-related deaths per 100,000 Americans. By 2022, when the DEA had been waging the war on drugs for half a century, that rate had risen tenfold. That does not look like success. Nor do trends in drug use. In a 1973 Gallup poll, 12 percent of Americans admitted they had tried marijuana. According to federal survey data, the share had risen fourfold by 2023, when the percentage reporting past-year drug use was more than double the 1995 number. What about drug prices, which the DEA aims to boost through source control and interdiction? From 1981 to 2012, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the average, inflation-adjusted retail price for a…

IN A 1995 interview, I asked Milton Friedman whether “it would be preferable to abolish the Fed entirely and just have government stick to a monetary growth rule?” Friedman answered: “Yes, it’s preferable. And there’s no chance at all of it happening.” He didn’t live to see the abolition of the Fed; perhaps no one reading this will. Still, a couple of years after Friedman’s 2006 death, a semi–mass movement calling to “End the Fed!” arose in the aftermath of Rep. Ron Paul’s first Republican presidential run in 2008. The Texas congressman found during that campaign a surprising (even to him) number of youngsters blaming the central bank, founded in 1913, for government sins from inflation to war (which is easier to wage when it can be financed by cash…

OVER THE PAST decade I’ve submitted hundreds of records requests to federal agencies through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). I’ve written extensively about the law, taught college students how to file requests, and evangelized the importance of having a statutory right to inspect public records. I love FOIA. And I hate it. The federal FOIA law is broken and should be replaced with something better. FOIA requests can take years to fulfill, unless you can afford to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Agency FOIA officers feed routinely abuse exemptions to hide records. The process is difficult even for experienced reporters to use for news-gathering. For example, Reason has been waiting more than two years for portions of a national FBI database of police use-of-force incidents. I submitted…

“IT’S THE CLEANEST, neatnest [sic] operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious.” When Rexford Tugwell, an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, wrote these words in 1934, he was not referring to the New Deal programs in his purview. He was recording his thoughts on fascist Italy while awaiting an audience with Benito Mussolini. Tugwell reacted with similar awe upon touring the Soviet Union in 1928, penning an essay urging Americans to reflect on what they might adapt from Josef Stalin’s “experiment.” For progressive historians who depict the New Deal as a “democratization” of the economy, Tugwell creates an unsettling complication. So do the many other leftist intellectuals who turned to the illiberal regimes of interwar Europe as models of economic planning. When conservative writer Jonah…

10 YEARS AGO July 2014 “By protecting entrenched interests from competition, occupational licensing makes millions of people worse off, hinders income mobility, and lowers economic growth. It is high time to let Americans work. Abolish all occupational licensing laws and end the practice of entrenched businesses using government to impose higher costs on consumers while thwarting upstart entrepreneurs.” VERONIQUE DE RUGY “Free the Horse Masseuses!” 27 YEARS AGO November 1997 “Is the Immigration and Naturalization Service toast? The congressionally appointed Commission on Immigration Reform, which has backed cuts in legal immigration, says abolish the INS. The commission wants the State Department to handle citizenship requests, the Justice Department to patrol the borders, and the Labor Department to police worksites. Senate immigration subcommittee Chairman Spencer Abraham (R–Mich.) may propose similar changes.” RICK HENDERSON…

In California, the Carlsbad City Council has banned smoking and vaping in apartments, condos, and other multiunit residential buildings. Starting in January, residents cannot light up, even on their own balconies and decks. Officials say that police don’t have the resources to enforce the law, but landlords and neighbors will be able to take legal action against those who violate the ban. In Norwood, Massachusetts, 12-year-old Danny Doherty set up a homemade ice cream stand to raise money for the Boston Bear Cubs, a hockey team for children with disabilities on which his brother plays. But after just a few days and only 20 customers, Doherty got a letter from the city ordering him to shut down. State health rules allow the sale of lemonade and home-made baked goods but…