POT WINS IN A LANDSLIDE

A Thundering Rejection of America's Longest War

On Tuesday, largely under the radar of the pundits and political
chattering classes, voters dealt what may be a fatal blow to America's
longest-running and least-discussed war -- the war on marijuana.

Michigan voters made their state the 13th to allow the medical use of
marijuana by a whopping 63 percent to 37 percent, the largest margin
ever for a medical marijuana initiative. And by 65 percent to 35
percent, Massachusetts voters decriminalized the possession of up to
an ounce of marijuana, replacing arrests, legal fees, court
appearances, the possibility of jail and a lifelong criminal record
with a $100 fine, much like a traffic ticket, that can be paid through
the mail.

What makes these results so amazing is that they followed the most
intensive anti-marijuana campaign by federal officials since the days
of "Reefer Madness." Marijuana arrests have been setting all-time
records year after year, reaching the point where one American is
arrested on marijuana charges every 36 seconds. More Americans are
arrested each year for marijuana possession -- not sales or
trafficking, just possession -- than for all violent crimes combined.

And the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, with "drug
czar" John Walters at the helm, has led a hysterical anti-marijuana
propaganda campaign. During Walters' tenure, ONDCP has released at
least 127 separate anti-marijuana TV, radio and print ads, at a cost
of hundreds of millions of tax dollars, plus 34 press releases focused
mainly on marijuana, while no fewer than 50 reports from ONDCP and
other federal agencies focused on the alleged evils of marijuana or
touted anti-marijuana campaigns.

Walters himself campaigned personally in Michigan against the medical
marijuana initiative, calling it an "abomination" and claiming yet
again that there is no evidence that marijuana has medical value -- an
assertion flatly contradicted by at least four published clinical
trials in just the last two years.

In Massachusetts, the state's political and law enforcement
establishment lined up solidly against the marijuana decriminalization
initiative, including both Republican and Democratic politicians and
all 11 district attorneys -- several of whom actually admitted to
having smoked marijuana. They warned of rampant drug abuse and crime
should the measure pass, simply ignoring the fact that no such thing
has happened in the 11 other states (including California, Ohio and
New York) that have had similar laws for years.

Voters were having none of it, giving a thumping rejection to
government officials' lies and hysteria in both states. Americans have
taken a hard look at our national war on marijuana and rejected it for
the cruel, counterproductive disaster that it is.

The voters are right. Of over 872,000 arrests in one year, 89 percent
are for possession only.

What has this gotten us? Not much. Marijuana arrests weren't the only
thing that set a record last year. So did the number of Americans who
have tried marijuana. Usage rates came down marginally in the last few
years but are still higher than in the early 1990s. Marijuana is our
nation's number one cash crop.

The one thing our costly and futile efforts to "eradicate" marijuana
have accomplished is to create a boom for criminal gangs, to whom
we've handed a monopoly on production and distribution. Unlike
producers of legal drugs like beer, wine or tobacco, these criminals
pay no taxes and obey no rules. Their illicit efforts despoil our
national forests and bring violence and destabilization to Mexico.

For years, politicians who know our current marijuana laws make no
sense have been afraid to change them for fear of political
retribution. The voters' thundering rejection of our misguided war on
marijuana shows that those fears are misplaced.

It's time for Congress and the new administration -- not to mention
state governments around the country -- to listen to the public. It's
time for a new approach.