Waking Up to a Failed Drug War

As the U.S. celebrates its 233rd independence day today, there's a feeling in the air that we're nearing the end of one of the most devastating failures in the history of our democracy - the war on drugs.

The media and the public have raised the level of drug policy discussion in recent months, perhaps sparked by a perceived opportunity for progress under the Obama administration. The summer issues of both Mother Jones and the American Prospect feature the war on drugs on their covers - and both take the positions we'd expect from these publications: fighting drugs by building prisons has been a failure, and the time has come to shape the policy of the next three decades. The political obstacles to drug policy progress are great and it will be extremely hard to forge a humane drug policy that prioritizes treatment over incarceration. I think we're up to the challenge, and now is the time.

Eli Sanders writes in the American Prospect, under the headline "The Last Drug Czar," that "one gets the distinct impression that (current drug czar Gil) Kerlikowske is positioning himself as a caretaker who can put an old model out to pasture while a new discussion is initiated."

It's a new day in the drug war. But can we end it?

Kevin Drum writes in Mother Jones (the issue is on newstands now and articles will be online soon) about the logistics of legalization. Drum, who has never inhaled, writes that he didn't much care about marijuana legalization when he began writing the piece. And then that changed:

Going into this assignment, I didn't care much personally about cannabis legalization. I just had a vague sense that if other people wanted to do it, why not let them? But the evidence suggests pretty clearly that we ought to significantly soften our laws on marijuana. Too many lives have been ruined and too much money spent for a social benefit that, if not zero, certainly isn't very high.

So is serious drug policy reform possible? Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper wrote in the Huffington Post this week that expanded coverage in progressive magazines and the blogosphere is important, but it will take a big step by Democrats in Washington to embrace this change and make something of it.

While many of our elected representatives privately support serious changes to our failed drug laws, they believe they are alone. They think if they stick their necks out they'll be handed their heads come election time.

Which is why we must rise up and let our elected officials know they are safe to support drug law reform. And in considerable political danger if they do not.