Drug Policy Reform: Is the Timing Perfect, or Are We Ahead of the Times?

So far, Barack Obama has indicated little penchant for pushing a drug policy reform agenda. Although Dominic Holden sees great hope in his selection for Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, formerly police chief of Seattle, he is largely an unknown and passive quantity who has neither espoused reform nor opposed it in that city. Are those of us who seek changes in the American approach to drugs whistling in the dark, or is now the time to strike?

Arguing for a radical new approach is the drug violence that is running wild in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, and spilling over the border into the United States. In Mexico itself, violent drug-related deaths numbered 5,000 in 2008. The pace of these murders has increased this year, with over 1,000 people having been reported killed so far through February.

As a result of this violence -- and the widespread corruption and intimidation of local police -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon has called out 40,000 federal troops to combat the drug trade. When the Mexicans speak of a War on Drugs, they mean it literally! Recently, a Mexican general was killed in Cancun -- which most Americans still think of as a vacation destination.

Worse still are the towns bordering the U.S., where constant drug violence rules. Ciudad Juarez (just across from El Paso in Texas) stands out as Mexico's most violent city. But the drug war has spread widely within the United States--including surprisingly far-flung locales. The AP reports that Mexican cartels are operating in over 230 U.S. cities. Five men were killed recently in Alabama over drugs: their throats were slit after they were tortured with electrical shocks!

Texas Governor Rick Perry has now asked for 1,000 American troops to guard the border with Mexico, with special attention to El Paso. I watched as former General -- and the Drug Czar under Bill Clinton -- Barry McCaffrey, who serves as a military consultant and news analyst, was questioned about this step. McCaffrey was dubious about the chances for success -- since, after all, the cartels are already present throughout the U.S.

McCaffrey suggested other military alternatives -- the man knows how to wage war! I fantasized asking him about the February 23rd Wall Street Journal editorial by three former Latin American Presidents (from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico) -- which claimed that the drug war had definitively failed, and was decimating the continent. These respected men want to address drug (and drug policy) harms, and since marijuana is less harmful than heroin and cocaine (except for the warring dealers, that is), it should be decriminalized.

Shocking! McCaffrey would only grimace and sneer at this proposal -- he certainly never entertained any such suggestion during his regime, being matched in his intransigence by Bush Drug Czar John Walters. These men (I wonder when we will have our first woman as Drug Czar) are charged, after all, with combating drugs, not permitting their use. Such a discussion is completely outside the pale in the U.S.

If someone were to confront McCaffrey and Walters with the current rampant violence throughout the U.S. and Latin America -- "Well," they'd say, "it's not on my watch." Both men claimed great success for their tenures. Walters was just trumpeting marginal reductions in high school drug use as he left office. As for McCaffrey -- he's been out of office since 2001 -- his successor Walters bollixed this deal up! So, as usual, the Drug Czar has left town before the latest policy failures are fully realized.

In the midst of this mess facing the new Czar, a California state legislator from San Francisco, Democrat Tom Ammiano, has proposed legally selling and taxing marijuana for those over the age of 21. Other legislators immediately denounced the bill -- Republican Paul Cook, of Yucca Valley, declared, "I think substance abuse is just ruining our society." But you wonder if Ammiano's logic -- "why not tax something which is already being widely used?" - will be more appealing given California's financial woes. Simply taxing the $2 billion medical marijuana trade -- a fraction of overall use of the drug in the state -- would bring in an estimated $100 million.

I'm daydreaming. Any true reform requires U.S. government approval. Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder promised not to raid California medical marijuana clubs, like his predecessor did. But creating a new drug policy will take more leadership than this. Barack Obama's got two young daughters who he certainly doesn't want taking drugs, like he did before he got over his own identity crisis as a youth. Conservatives are already assailing his economic stimulus package, and he hasn't been willing to take on the risk of nodding his approval of gay marriage. So legalizing marijuana is a couple of steps too far down Obama road. I guess we'll have to wait for his Republican successor!

Aww, I'll just go back to my pipe dreams.

Comments

[zak822]

Unless drug law reform can be directly tied to addressing the violence perpetrated by the cartels, both in Mexico and now here in the US, nothing can happen. But as it stands, Mexican drug gang violence committed in US cities is a subject that can barely be spoken of in the press.

Weed in particular contiunes to be demonized by public officials, despite all evidence to that it's not a threat to public order. And despite the fact that it presents a genuine revenue source that could double as a means to reduce the money available to the cartels.

I bought rolling papers last night at the supermarket (a national chain, by the way), along with my regular weekly food shopping. They were in a stand at the checkout counter. That says a lot about how weed has become accepted by the public.

[KaLaPa111]

As part of its anti-smoking efforts, NYC has continuously raised taxes on cigarettes. Basically, their logic is that if the habit becomes too expensive to maintain, then people will effectively stop smoking. This is why I'm more a fan of decriminalization than all out legalization, because I fear spending $30 on a shwag-filled joint. Either way, I think its high time (no pun intended) that our leaders stopped equating pot with crystal meth and E when they know it belongs on a lower rung than even liquor and tobacco.

[DudeinHammock]

Great post, except the end. WE CAN'T WAIT! We shouldn't wait. Obama needs public pressure to give him political cover for what he knows is right. Now is the time. Well over half the adults in the country know that marijuana is a bogus threat. The country desperately needs the money that would be saved by stopping this absurd war and gained through taxation. The stars are aligned. The worst thing we can do now is sit back and "wait" for things to happen. Obama needs public pressure. Now's not the time to relax and wait for him to save the world. He can't do anything without us.

[ktano0]

I have been reading a lot of these threads lately, and there is an issue I have not seen dealt with. If marijuana is ever made legal, or decriminalized in any meaningful way, it will need to be done with a massive public relations campaign, to de-program the masses. And, personally, I don't think it could be done. Society has been brainwashed by successive government administrations, and the Partnership for a Drug Free America (Prozac,anyone?) that I think that there could be a public back-lash ("we must save our children!!!) and it wouldn't be long before the strict laws would be back on the books. I remember seeing a documentary that showed that the Nixon Administration actually just wanted to be involved with the rehabilitation aspects of the drugs, until the maritni-swilling suburbanites started demanding criminalization. That could happen again...lord knows I've seen many of my hippie brethren lose their minds, join the church, and stop having any elicit fun at all after the little rug-rats came into their lives.
And with that comes the feeling that anyone doing anything differently is not just weird, but a threat.

In short, drug law reform is still a long long way in the future. So, be careful out there.

[PlaceboStudman]

There is a bill currently in California that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana (and porn) the way cigarettes and alcohol are now. Of course I assume this legislation will die in committee, but it does give hope that there will come a time when we don't even need to have the discussion, the legislatures of our states will see the financial benefits in regulating and taxing marijuana, and the drug laws will fall like dominoes

And, I suspect, in time, the same thing will be said for gay marriage. There will be a time when our grand children or great grand children will wonder just why we were being so uptight about something so simple as love between consenting adults

[juxtapostle]

Prohibitionism is a modern day caste system; self-righteousness become violence. It is the deadliest and most expensive drug habit of all.

[ProgressiveVoice]

Just as only the "bad" criminals are in prison, ie. the ones that are incompetent at being criminals, so it is that only the "bad" drug users stand out as drug users. Be it prescription or "recreational", drug use surrounds us constantly, far more than most people realize.

[wendy82551]

I guess you missed the news. Eric Holder has said that the federal government will no longer commit raids on the marijuana clubs in California and that the creation of drug laws will be left to the states. As a citizen of Massachusetts, where they have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of pot, I think we're on the edge of seeing major changes in drug laws and so-called drug law enforcement activities.