Pubdate: Wed, 17 Apr 2002
Source: UWM Post, The (WI Edu)
Copyright: 2002 The UWM Post
Contact:  http://www.uwmpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2130
Author: Robert Merkin
Note: Titled by MAP

NOT WITH A BANG

To the Editor:

The most interesting thing about Wisconsin's medical marijuana opinion 
survey ("Legalizing Medicine," 10 April) is its insight into how America's 
War on Drugs will end: Not with a police bang, but with a quiet ballot-box 
whimper.

Students (18 or older) and retirees both approve of medical marijuana 
roughly at a whopping 90 percent. When the 4 percent uncertainty is 
applied, Republicans and Democrats have nearly equal approval rates, 
supporting medical marijuana in a middle ground around 81 percent. Not 
counting the "miscellaneous occupation" category, which probably represents 
a small and low-confidence sample, the lowest support category is the media 
market area of Duluth and Superior, where more than seven of every ten 
adults approve of medical marijuana. All other categories and regions range 
from mid-70 percent to 90+ percent support for a substance which, by 
conventional politician and police fear mongering, has been destroying the 
moral fiber of society for a century. In other words, almost nobody's 
afraid of the Satan weed from hell anymore, and in the doctor-patient 
context, whopping Wisconsin majorities find it perfectly appropriate.

So the only question is time. How long will it take the die-hard zero- 
tolerance drug warrior prosecutors, police and legislators to do just that: 
Die, so the vast majority of citizens can shape policies in a way they find 
sane and rational?

The numbers clearly show that when a 65-year-old lock-em-all-up pot 
prohibitionist finally retires and lumbers off the political stage, he or 
she will be quietly replaced by a younger public servant with very 
different ideas.

This week we have learned, sadly, that Wisconsin leads the nation in the 
rate of African-Americans locked up in its jails and prisons, and most of 
that for drug offenses. It's long past time for the die-hards to die, easy 
or hard, so Wisconsin can regain its political sanity and its commitment to 
racial justice.

Robert Merkin
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom