Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Jesse Kline

THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE WAR ON DRUGS

Bleary-eyed conservatives awoke Wednesday to ponder again why a 
country in such dire financial straights would re-elect Barack Obama. 
But Tuesday's election was even worse for social conservatives, who 
had to confront numerous ballot initiatives approving same-sex 
marriage, and two states voting to legalize marijuana, not just for 
medical use, but for the enjoyment of anyone who wants to come home 
after a hard day's work and spark up the Demon Weed.

Massachusetts joins a list of 17 states, plus the District of 
Columbia, that now allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. 
Two states went even further: Colorado and Washington state both 
approved measures to legalize marijuana by a vote of 55%-45%.

In both states, recreational pot smokers over the age of 21 will no 
longer face penalties for possessing less than one ounce of 
marijuana. Colorado's new law also allows people to grow up to six 
plants for personal use and transfer up to an ounce, so long as it's 
not sold at a profit - giving people there immediate access to legal weed.

Regulations surrounding the commercial production and sale still have 
to be written. The Washington Liquor Control Board has until Dec. 1, 
2013, to adopt new rules for growers and sellers, while Colorado's 
Department of Revenue will be required to come up with new 
regulations by July. It would appear that the groundswell of 
opposition to America's neverending war on drugs is starting to make 
inroads where the hippies of yesteryear failed so miserably.

America boasts the world's largest prison population - 2.6 million 
people are incarcerated, compared to 1.6 million in China - many of 
whom are languishing in jail for committing non-violent drug 
offences. For years, politicians in the United States have imposed 
tougher sentences and stricter laws, out of fear the electorate would 
punish them if they appeared soft on crime.

What happened on Tuesday represents a sea change: Voters signalled 
they have finally had enough of a drug policy that caused more harm 
than the substances from which it is supposed to protect people. And 
this change did not come from the courts, the political elite or an 
army of stoners, but from everyday people who have come to realize 
the follies of prohibition. Indeed, much like alcohol prohibition in 
the 1920s, U.S. drug policy enriches organized crime, feeds violence, 
prevents the state from tapping into a lucrative source of revenue 
and makes it illegal for responsible adults to make decisions about 
what to put in their own bodies.

But undoing all the damage that has already been done will be a long 
and arduous process. Marijuana remains a Schedule I substance in the 
United States, which is prohibited under federal law. And before all 
the stoners out there get too excited about Obama - who passed around 
a few spliffs in his college days - it should be remembered that the 
Obama administration has carried out more raids on medical marijuana 
dispensaries than its Republican predecessor.

That being said, the results of this historic election fundamentally 
changes the game. Obama still faces a divided Congress, but he 
controls the Justice Department and no longer has to worry about 
getting reelected. With so many states permitting the sale of 
medicinal marijuana, and two states opting for outright legalization, 
the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) - which relies on state and local 
police to make 99% of marijuana-related arrests - simply does not 
have the resources to shut down everyone who will be selling supplies.

The Obama administration will come under increasing pressure to make 
the DEA stand down and allow the states to continue with their 
legalization experiments. This, of course, could easily change with a 
new president in 2016, but Obama may have a path for pushing a 
liberalization law through Congress.

Many constitutional conservatives favour measures that put 
decision-making powers back in the hands of the states. Obama could 
work with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to pass some 
meaningful reforms that would allow the states to legally experiment 
with different approaches to drug policy.

In the long run, the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election may 
not matter all that much. Neither candidate had a plan to balance the 
country's budget in a reasonable amount of time; neither Romney nor 
Obama would have been willing to stand aside and let the economy get 
back to work on its own; and both men would have continued on roughly 
the same path in terms of foreign policy. But historians may look 
back and see 2012 as the year when Nixon's war on drugs finally 
crested and began to roll back, leaving a more sensible and freer 
society in its place.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom