Robert C. Koehler
It's not just about us. If Californians legalize marijuana on
The "war on drugs," like the war on terror, is a simplistic and brutally stupid solution imposed on a complex, multifaceted human problem, born out of the notion that you can take evil out of context and eradicate it with the firepower of righteousness. Science and the arts have long ago moved on to new realms of awareness, but we're still playing politics the way we did in the 19th century -- or the 12th or 1st -- with the primary difference being that we have the capacity to do far more harm these days.
And righteousness, indeed, all too often becomes a far greater cause of harm than the original problem; in tandem, problem and solution may combine to turn chronic trouble into unfathomable disaster, especially for innocent bystanders.
Writing earlier this month in the
If Californians pass Proposition 19 and make marijuana fully legal,
All of which puts Prop 19 and the entire issue of legalizing pot in
Indeed, in 2009, police busted 858,408 people for pot violations, according to the FBI's recently released Uniform Crime Report. This is the second highest total ever, and just shy of the record set in 2007. What gives? Even as the country inches its way toward marijuana sanity -- medical marijuana is now legal in 14 states and two more (
My friend
All of this, as Ellis wrote recently, was "for the crime of growing seven pounds of pot and giving it away to four terminally ill neighbors, a crime that I never denied I committed from the moment that two helicopters and 10 four-wheelers descended on my farm."
And in the three weeks before the auctioning of his land, he wrote, his farm was buzzed three times by pot-seeking government aircraft, "low enough to rattle my windows and blow down my late summer sweet corn." What it sounds like is governmental stalking.
Lavishing so much righteous, punitive energy on marijuana users and growers is doubly ironic. The plant's abuse potential is miniscule compared to its value.
But even if marijuana was a clear social problem, on the order of cocaine, declaring war on it and proceeding ruthlessly, consequences be damned, to eradicate it, not only doesn't work, but causes incalculable and pointless harm.
Prop 19, which no mainstream
Available at Amazon.com:
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
- Millennium Development Goals for Women Largely Unmet
- North Korean Succession Plans Are Shrouded in Mystery
- Rogue BFFs North Korea and Iran Make Quite a Pair
- American Role in Israeli-Palestinian Talks Is a Problem
- Iraq Reluctant to Pay Its Fair Share of Security Costs
- Iran's 'Shaky' Ahmadinejad
- United States Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward
- Hugo Chávez May Lose Even if He Wins
- Brazil Needs Dose of Constructive Paranoia
- Latin American Commodity Exporters Need to Diversify
- Stoned on Righteousness
- Our Man in Moscow
- Widening Divide in American-Chinese Commercial Interests
- The New Old World Order
- Global Human-Rights Cause Gets a Shot in the Arm
- Obama's Foreign Policy Performance
- New Russia Takes Root in Saint Petersburg and Moscow
- Dismantling Worst-Case Proliferation Scenarios
- A Numbers Game in the Middle East
- Middle East Peace Talks: Here We Go Again
- Obama and Clinton Revive Middle East Peace Talks
- Guess Who's Coming to the Table
- Iraq: Unanswered Policy Questions on U.S. Troops
- Iraq: Implications of a Pointless War
- Iraq: Book Review
- Iraq: No Drums and No Bugles: None Dare Call It Victory
- Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage
- A French Leftist Ritual Takes on Sarkozy
- United States Losing Latin America Market Share
- The Power of Being Multilingual
- Chavez's Obsession With Past Turns Creepy and He's Not Alone
- Obama Could Help Stop Mexico's Bloodshed
- Mexico Needs U.S. Help But Not Troops
- Mexico's Narco Problems Are Our Problems, and Vice Versa
- Pro-Arizona Immigration Rhetoric Will Haunt Republicans
- We Are Playing Fidel Castro's Game
- Has the Time Come to Legalize Drugs?
- Venezuela - Colombia Spat to Pass, Return
- Hugo Chavez Might Keep Congress Despite Vote
- Reform Movement in Cuba
- Cuba's Prisoner Release No Sign of New Era
- 'Maradona Syndrome' Bad for Argentina
- Obama Wasting Opportunities in Latin America
- Obama Immigration Speech All Words -- No Action
- Obama Immigration Reform: Tell It to Us Straight
- Obama's Unclear Path to Immigration Reform
- Obama's Border Talk: Little Action
- Mexico: The New Cocaine Cowboys
- Under Santos Colombia Could Rise to the Next Level
- Autocrats' Latest Weapon: Indirect Censorship
- Latin America's Rich Should Be More Generous
- Castrocare in Crisis
- World Cup Soccer Can Have Political Impact
- Gulf Oil Spill Could Bring U.S. and Cuba Closer
- Colombia Vote Showed Social Media's Limits
- New Political Winds in Latin America
- Colombia: Moving Beyond 'Narco-Democracy'
- Is Colombia's Front-runner Too Romantic? Not Really
- Mexico has its own 'Arizona' problem
- Brazil Diplomacy Needed Closer to Home
- Hugo Chavez Ceding too Much Control to Cuba
- Cuban Cardinal Says Too Little Too Late
- The Starving Armenians
- Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law Will Spark Hispanic Exodus
- Open Season on Latinos in Arizona
- Obama Criticism of Arizona Immigration Law Ignores Federal Incompetence
- Mexico's Big Hope: Get 5 Million U.S. Retirees
- U.S. Latin Policy: Big Gestures and Little Substance
- Latin America Must Diversify Trade With China
- Cuba After Fidel and Raul Castro
- Earthquake May Delay Chile's First World Goal
(C) 2010 Robert C. Koehler