Storming the Bastille of Orthodoxy

After describing orthodox medicine and its alternatives in early America, this chapter discusses the rise of country’s earliest medical licensing laws, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These schemes strove to exclude unorthodox practitioners from the medical profession. American arguments for freedom of therapeutic choice were born in opposition to these original licensing systems. The chapter examines in detail the medical liberty advocacy of Benjamin Rush, an influential Founding Father who was also the most prominent American physician of the early national period. The chapter analyzes the genesis during this time of various strains of medical freedom rhetoric that would persist, to varying degrees, throughout American history.

How much does it cost to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker?

There is little empirical evidence on the costs and benefits of licensing clinical social workers. Given the financial pressures faced by current students and a renewed national mandate to evaluate occupational licensing laws, it is important for social work to examine licensure in a rigorous manner. The following descriptive study calculated the average cost of attaining clinical licensure in social work for bachelor’s-level clinicians in the field. Using publicly available tuition data from the 250 graduate programs, 51 licensing boards, and anonymous survey data from 86 current social workers, the study provides an estimate of the cost of attaining licensure across 50 states and Washington, DC. Implications for aspiring social workers and social work policymakers are explored.

‘I Wouldn’t Call the Cops if I was Being Bashed to Death’: Sex Work, Whore Stigma and the Criminal Legal System

Discourse on sex work is replete with narratives of risk and danger, predominantly focused on violence and disease. However, the risks instigated by police, maintained by the criminal justice system and sanctioned by the state—criminal laws, licensing laws and targeted policing—receive far less attention. This paper responds to this gap in three ways. First, we examine how stigma manifests in sex workers’ experiences of Australian policing, which act to disincentivise sex workers from accessing criminal legal mechanisms. Second, we illustrate how sex workers are denied victim status as they are seen by law as ‘irresponsible citizens’ and blamed for their experiences of crime. Third, we argue that these factors create conditions in which sex workers must constantly assess risks to access safety and legal redress while structural sex work stigma persists unabated. We conclude that ‘whore stigma’ is entrenched in the criminal legal system and requires a systematic response that necessitates but goes beyond the decriminalisation of sex work.

History of substance use and control in British Guiana

Whilst the impact of drugs on the culture of Caribbean societies and Indigenous populations is well documented, their role in maintaining influence over an ethnically diverse population and regulating labour productivity are frequently overlooked. In this paper we examine the use of drugs as a means of compelling and retaining labour in British Guiana during the nineteenth century. We also assess changes over time in how the colonial state managed concerns that the use of intoxicants threatened its control over the labouring population through licensing laws, carceral institutions and the criminalisation of certain drugs.

History of substance use and control in British Guiana

Whilst the impact of drugs on the culture of Caribbean societies and Indigenous populations is well documented, their role in maintaining influence over an ethnically diverse population and regulating labour productivity are frequently overlooked. In this paper we examine the use of drugs as a means of compelling and retaining labour in British Guiana during the nineteenth century. We also assess changes over time in how the colonial state managed concerns that the use of intoxicants threatened its control over the labouring population through licensing laws, carceral institutions and the criminalisation of certain drugs.

Purchaser Licensing, Point-of-Sale Background Check Laws, and Firearm Homicide and Suicide in 4 US States, 1985–2017

Objectives. To estimate and compare the effects of state background check policies on firearm-related mortality in 4 US states. Methods. Annual data from 1985 to 2017 were used to examine Maryland and Pennsylvania, which implemented point-of-sale comprehensive background check (CBC) laws for handgun purchasers; Connecticut, which adopted a handgun purchaser licensing law; and Missouri, which repealed a similar law. Using synthetic control methods, we estimated the effects of these laws on homicide and suicide rates stratified by firearm involvement. Results. There was no consistent relationship between CBC laws and mortality rates. There were estimated decreases in firearm homicide (27.8%) and firearm suicide (23.2%–40.5%) rates associated with Connecticut’s law. There were estimated increases in firearm homicide (47.3%), nonfirearm homicide (18.1%), and firearm suicide (23.5%) rates associated with Missouri’s repeal. Conclusions. Purchaser licensing laws coupled with CBC requirements were consistently associated with lower firearm homicide and suicide rates, but CBC laws alone were not. Public Health Implications. Our results contribute to a body of research showing that CBC laws are not associated with reductions in firearm-related deaths unless they are coupled with handgun purchaser licensing laws.

E-cigarette Tobacco Retail Licensing Laws: Variance Across US States as of January 1, 2020

Objectives. To describe how US states and the District of Columbia regulate e-cigarette sales by examining e-cigarette–specific tobacco retail licensing (TRL) laws. Methods. We coded 25 state-level e-cigarette TRL laws (effective as of January 1, 2020) for provisions we labeled as either “core” (e.g., presence of license terms, fees, and penalties) or “descriptive” (e.g., license fee amount and term length). Results. Overall, 23 laws clearly defined a license term, 23 laws required a license fee, and 19 laws identified penalties for violations that included both license suspension and revocation. Fees widely ranged ($5–$1000 annually), and 8 laws did not explicitly direct fees toward TRL administration or enforcement. No law required that retailers comply with all local, state, and federal tobacco or e-cigarette laws. Conclusions. Most laws contained core TRL provisions. Several laws, however, had minimal license fees and did not direct fees toward administration or enforcement. As youth e-cigarette use increases, more states should consider establishing e-cigarette TRL laws or incorporating provisions into existing TRL laws.