[baud147258]

> In terms of public policy you have to decide what you're optimizing for and that decision can't be made with data alone because it does not help resolve questions of value and fairness. Not to mention that matters of value and fairness also change the availability of, and interest in, research itself. For example, if some people don't like the results of your research (despite presenting no challenge to the facts or methodology), they can now apparently replace it without notice after publishing it in a journal (and do so in a manner which is intended to make it difficult to publish it in other journals).

The academy is the wrong place to direct politics, because politics already direct the academy.

From my perspective, a more likely overall improvement in the ongoing quality of policy would be a requirement that all policies sunset reasonably soon by default, even if they don't seem divisive at the time they're passed. As it regards controlled substances, this would lower the bar for repeal to "nobody particularly cares to renew it" from "nobody particularly cares to do the work to repeal it".