Prohibition Is Finally Coming to an End: NY Times Ad

[Matanuska Thunder]

19 Dec 2012 From:

http://www.huffingto..._b_2333287.html

 

NY Times Ad: Prohibition Is Finally Coming to an End

 

In Thursday's New York Times, the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation's leading drug policy reform organization, is running a

full-page ad to thank voters in Colorado and Washington and emphasize the growing support for drug policy reform. Last month, Colorado and Washington became the first two states in the country -- and the first political jurisdictions anywhere in the world -- to approve legally regulating marijuana like alcohol, with both states' initiatives winning by decisive margins.

 

Voters in Washington and Colorado did more than just make history by voting to end their states' marijuana prohibition laws and attempt instead to regulate marijuana as a legal commodity. They performed a national service by catapulting the national conversation about drug policy to a new level of urgency and political significance. The ad appears just one week after

President Obama commented on the votes in Colorado and Washington -- framing the conflict between federal and state law as a question to be resolved and stating that people who use marijuana in states that have legalized it should not be a "top priority" for federal law enforcement.

 

Even before the votes in Colorado and Washington were counted, 2012 had already been a watershed year for the burgeoning movement to end the war on drugs. Arguments that were articulated just five years ago primarily by intellectuals and activists, and three years ago by former presidents and policymakers, are now being advanced with growing sophistication and nuance by current presidents in Latin America and a small but growing number of elected officials in the United States.

 

In Latin America, presidents such as Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia), Otto Pérez Molina (Guatemala), and José Mujica (Uruguay) are embracing alternatives to prohibition. In a sign of the shifting political tides, two U.S. governors from opposite sides of the aisle who are often mentioned as 2016 presidential candidates -- New York's Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey's Chris Christie -- have embraced drug policy reform this year. Governor Christie broke ranks with fellow Republicans by calling the drug war a failure, while Governor Cuomo committed to ending New York's racially discriminatory marijuana arrest crusade. Even strange bedfellows like evangelical leader Pat Robertson and former President Jimmy Carter spoke out in support of legally regulating marijuana this year. And perhaps most tellingly, President Bill Clinton joined several other former presidents in sharply criticizing the war on drugs in the just-released documentary Breaking the Taboo

 

This past year was the best ever for our growing movement to end the war on drugs. Marijuana legalization and broader drug policy reform have moved from the fringes to the mainstream of U.S. and international politics.

 

edited for formatting...

Edited December 20, 2012 by Matanuska Thunder