Will California Democrats Disrupt Momentum to Legalize Marijuana?

The fault lines for legalizing marijuana fail to align with the standard left/right dichotomy that generally divides those with opinions on the death penalty, prison conditions and handgun regulations.

Progressives like Representatives Pete Stark, Barbara Lee and George Miller, as well as the NAACP and firedoglake, support legalizing marijuana. California's top five Democrats, however, indicate that they oppose an initiative on the state's ballot this November to do just that. Proposition 19 would change state law to legalize, tax and regulate the recreational marijuana industry.

The otherwise admirable Kamala Harris, who is running to replace gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown as California's Attorney General, voiced her antipathy to Prop. 19 through a spokesperson, who said little more than this: "Harris supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana but does not support anything beyond that." Harris appears eager to distance herself from the issue, with her campaign website failing to offer a single mention of the top initiative on her state's ballot this fall. Perhaps the closest that Harris comes to sharing her views on point is here, where she boasts about increasing San Francisco's convictions for drug crimes during her time as District Attorney there.

A more thoughtful and courageous criticism of Proposition 19 was offered this weekend by the esteemed criminal justice analyst Mark Kleiman, whose objection to the initiative is not decriminalization, but commercialization. Kleiman, whose policy suggestions tend to fall on the progressive end of the spectrum, worries that commercialization would give rise to a pot industry on par with those of tobacco, fast/junk food, gambling and alcohol, which use their marketing and lobbying arms to expand markets for the unhealthy wares that they peddle.

"To the consumer, developing a bad habit is bad news. To the marketing executive, it's the whole point of the exercise," Kleiman observes. "For any potentially addictive commodity or activity, the minority that gets stuck with a bad habit consumes the majority of the product.

"So the entire marketing effort is devoted to cultivating and maintaining the people whose use is a problem to them and a gold mine to the industry," concludes Kleiman.

One rebuke of Kleiman's opposition to commercial legalization comes from E.D. Kain, who sees Kleiman as fearing the free markets more while ignoring the harm of a persistent black market in marijuana. Kain argues essentially argues that, if marijuana sales are illegal, then only outlaws will sell marijuana—a half step above the status quo in that possessing and growing marijuana for personal use would be sanctioned.

"I’m much more afraid of violent drug dealers, over-eager SWAT teams, and the whole awful black market cycle of violence than I am about the lobbying arms of a few big corporations which apparently fill Kleiman with fear," writes Kain. "I’ll take lobbyists over drug cartels any day."

One person who agrees with Kain's support of marijuana commercialization is former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is being discussed as a serious Republican candidate for president in 2012. Johnson has long supported legalization, offering extensive insights into his views and past use in this 2001 interview with the libertarian publication Reason. Pro-legalization advocates are eagerly awaiting revelations of Johnson's plans for 2012, believing him capable of catalyzing a broad, bi-partisan push for ending the War on Drugs.

The conservative case for legalization was recently detailed impressively by Paul and Dom Armentano, the latter of whom is an economist formerly with the Cato Institute. Premised on "conservative principles like free markets, limited government and the rule of law," — wait; didn't they abandon the rule of law? — the Armentano's assess and dismiss the standard conservative objections to legalization and endorse Prop. 19.

With less than 80 days until California voters decide whether to launch their experiment in ending marijuana prohibition, salvos will continue to be launched for and against the initiative from both sides of the aisle. Bipartisan support and consistently strong polling indicate, however, that the campaign for legalization is on the right track. The cowardly opposition of California's leading Democrats is insufficient to disrupt its momentum.

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