PROGRESSIVES PUSH AGAINST DRUG WAR: WILL DEMS LISTEN?

It's official. We can now talk openly about what the great majority of
us have known for a long time: drug prohibition isn't working, and
never will. It's time to try something different. News organizations
are awash in stories about the failure of the "drug war." Latest
issues of three of the most influential progressive magazines have
feature stories on the topic.

Mother Jones puts drug policy on its cover -- under the headline
"Totally Wasted" (as in, money and lives) -- as part of a package
including at least 10 separate pieces on topic. The American Prospect
also fronts the issue, proclaiming "The End of the War on Drugs." The
Nation has a feature (quoting yours truly and other drug policy
reformers, including my Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
colleagues) confirming that the topic has finally ripened to maturity,
its earnest discourse inescapable.

It's not only newsprint publications calling out the futility and
harmfulness of our decades-old prohibition policy. The progressive
blogosphere, including Daily Kos, TalkLeft, Crooks and Liars, and, of
course, Huffington Post has been devoting more and more bits and bytes
to bashing our insane, inhumane drug laws.

So, why does the President of the United States insist on making a
joke of the issue? Why, indeed, do most Democrats in Washington
scramble to avoid the conversation altogether?

Three out of four Americans believe the "war on drugs" is a failure
and can never be won. Serious people like Sen. Jim Webb, former
Mexican president Vicente Fox, Congressmen Barney Frank, Charlie
Rangel, Steve Cohen and others, even a growing body of right-of-center
analysts and politicians have been saying it's time to fundamentally
reshape our approach to drug control.

So, why this divide between massive public opposition to current
policies and the positions taken by our leaders? Fear, of course.
They're afraid of being punished for touching what has been perceived,
mistakenly, as a third rail issue.

And the cause of this "drug war dementia"? I'm guessing it has
something to do with a brilliant 2004 poll on the topic of medical
marijuana. The poll asked two questions, the first confirming what had
already been shown over and over again: that about 70 percent of
people support the idea of legalizing marijuana, at least for medical
purposes.

But then, pollsters asked something interesting:

"Regardless of your own opinion, do you think the majority of people
support making marijuana medically available, or do you think the
majority opposes making marijuana medically available?"

The result? In Rhode Island, where the poll was conducted, only 26.5
percent thought that most people support medical marijuana.

The lesson here? While many of our elected representatives privately
support serious changes to our failed drug laws, they believe they are
alone. They think if they stick their necks out they'll be handed
their heads come election time.

Which is why we must rise up and let our elected officials know they
are safe to support drug law reform. And in considerable political
danger if they do not.