ONE SOCCER MOM'S TAKE ON THE DRUG WAR

I hope my daughter will never smoke marijuana. Regardless of whether
she does one day, I know one thing for sure: Keeping it illegal can
only harm her future.

Since 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has spent more
than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars on twin advertising campaigns
seeking to discourage marijuana use. The first speaks to parents,
calling them the "Anti-Drug." It fails before it begins. Good parents
are going to talk to their children about drugs. All the feel-good ads
in the world aren't going to get indifferent parents to engage in such
an awkward but essential dialogue.

The second campaign fails as well. In these, youthful but
sophisticated graphics tell kids not to use marijuana. If there is one
sure way to get adolescents to smoke pot, tell them that the
government and their parents don't want them to. In fact, a recently
published national study indicates that after viewing commercials for
this campaign, young people were more likely to exhibit positive
responses about the drug.

Politicians whisper quietly behind closed doors about the insanity of
the drug war. Neither party, however, has had the courage to take a
stand against prohibition publicly. Just imagine if the $2 billion
invested in these ads - or the billions more spent prosecuting
peaceful marijuana users every year - had been diverted instead into
tuition grants for needy students or back to taxpaying parents who
could directly invest in college funds.

Earlier this year, many Colorado Republicans - myself included -
expressed outrage against a new statewide smoking ban, saying it runs
contrary to our American ethos of individual rights, private property
rights, and personal responsibility. But where is the GOP's outrage
now as the government spends billions to tell people they can't make
the decision to use marijuana, a drug proven to be less harmful than
cigarettes?

Democrats are no less guilty. They silently watch as our government's
addiction to prohibition becomes a national epidemic, taking money out
of the pockets of working families and sending thousands behind bars
every year.

Both parties do nothing because they believe in the same urban myth.
They know they must get the "soccer mom" vote if they want to win, but
they are confused on how to achieve this. Their logic goes like this:
Moms don't like drugs. Moms don't want their kids to use drugs. Do not
advocate legalization or decriminalization if you want moms to vote
for your party.

This strategy is tied to reliable studies demonstrating that women are
now the decisionmakers in most American families. Just as mom decides
which brand of toilet paper to buy for her family, she increasingly
plays decisionmaker when it comes to voting. Democrats and Republicans
alike believe they would gain nothing by advocating an end to
prohibition, but both have failed to consider that they might just
gain votes if they could learn to speak to mothers about drugs in a
way that they could relate to. Parents across America are trying to
find a way to fund college. By legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and
turning this revenue into college scholarships and treatment programs,
the future of every child could be just a little bit brighter.

Compare this with the system we have now. Marijuana prohibition,
violated by millions every year, has become the laughing stock of
American public policy. Kids have seen first-hand that it's not as
damaging as they've been led to believe. In the process, they begin to
believe that some laws aren't meant to be obeyed. This is by far
prohibition's most damaging side effect and only makes the job of
being a mom that much tougher.

When I sit my daughter down to talk about marijuana, I'm not going to
sugar-coat the facts. Marijuana can be addictive and destructive -
just as alcohol can be - when abused. I'm going to let her know that
life is exciting enough without turning to drugs for fun. She will
learn that every law should be respected and that she should work to
change those she believes are unjust.

At the end of the day, our government knows it cannot enforce
marijuana prohibition. In the absence of being able to do so, it sends
the damaging message to our young people that marijuana should be
illegal simply because "I'm the government, and I said so." Moms know
better - and may ultimately be the single key to bringing sanity back
to American drug policy.