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January 18, 2008
Presidential Politics and Pot (Personal)
It woulld probably come as a surprise to most Americans, but there is a (more or less) organized political movement opposed to the drug war. That knowledge of the “movement’s” very existence would surprise most voters is also a fitting measure of its futility. That’s especially so because more than just a cursory look at how reform organizations spend most of their time, effort, and money reveals that it’s almost all about being noticed: they are trying desperately to get their fellow citizens to discover how ”bad” the drug war is for both the nation and the world, a game they have been trying to play with little success since 1970, when NORML became the then-new “drug war’s” first full-time political opposition.
Unfortunately, most reformers have yet to understand that although their federal opponents had also jumped off on the wrong foot intellectually, they had done so fifty years before a drug war was ever declared, and after first securing the “full faith and credit” of the US Federal Government for a stealth policy of drug prohibition. That essential detail was taken care of when the 1914 Harrison Act was upheld by two obscure 5-4 Supreme Court decisions.
To return to the present: among the many ways to understand how completely the drug policy refrom movement has been failing, perhaps the best is to look at their three favorite Presidential Candidates after first realizing that they are favorites only because of (mostly) cautious statements made on behalf of medical marijuana. Those three candidates, in likely order of their own name recognition, are Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.
Enough said, also enough for now; more later.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at January 18, 2008 04:35 PM