02.28.09
The First Step
Eric Holder suggests that changes are coming in the War on Drugs:
San Francisco — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama – who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana – will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.
Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.
“What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”
“You’ll be surprised to know”? Why? Just because Obama was in favor of liberalizing the policy as a candidate, then allowed the raids to continue once in office, and now is reversing himself again?
There’s no doubt that the criminalization of marihuana in America makes for stupid and counterproductive policy and law. How much more effective would our border security be if the rationale for smuggling marihuana into our country were disincentivized? Only those drug dealers who were intent on moving coke and crank and other hardcore drugs into this country would find it worth the risk. And since their numbers are much smaller, our present interdictions would thereby become proportionately more effective.
I applaud the President and his race-baiting attorney general for this important first step towards full legalization, and I hope they are not bullied off their position by the drug war absolutists whose lack of common sense is destroying lives, wasting money, and undermining our border security.
