America's war on drugs got a lot more interesting Tuesday night when Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana. Legalization advocates were quick to call the two measures "the beginning of the end" of marijuana prohibition in the United States. "The beginning of the end has begun," Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at his blog. "Yesterday's elections have forever changed the playing field regarding cannabis prohibition laws in America (and probably in large parts of the world too)," he went on. [continues 1654 words]
Hundreds of law enforcement professionals including Denver's U.S. District Judge John Kane have come together on a curious quest: Saying the drug war has failed, they want to legalize drugs. Some are very nuts and bolts, saying the war on drugs has cost trillions of dollars while only making the problem worse. Others like Kane, while agreeing on that point, are more philosophical. "Our national drug policy is inconsistent with the nature of justice, abusive of the nature of authority, and ignorant of the compelling force of forgiveness," he says on the web site of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [continues 1139 words]
