THE END OF PROHIBITION

Getting High, Gay Marriage And Going To Cuba Will Soon Be Legal In The
U.S.

'I think this would be a good time for a beer," Franklin D. Roosevelt
said upon signing a bill that made 3.2% lager legal again, some months
ahead of the full repeal of Prohibition. I hope Barack Obama will come
up with some comparably witty remarks as he presides over the
dismantling of contemporary forms of prohibition in the U.S. --laws
that prevent gay marriage, restrict cannabis as a Schedule I
Controlled Substance and ban travel to Cuba.

Prohibition now is different from Prohibition then. When the 18th
Amendment went into effect in 1920, it was a radical social experiment
challenging a custom as old as civilization. Its predictable failure
came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st
Amendment in 1933. Today prohibition is a byword for futile attempts
to legislate morality and remake human nature.

Our forms of prohibition are more sins of omission than commission.
Rather than trying to take away long-standing rights, they're
instances of conservative laws failing to keep pace with a
liberalizing society. But like Prohibition in the '20s, these
restrictions have become indefensible as well as impractical, and as a
result are fading fast. Within 10 years, it seems a reasonable guess
that Americans will travel freely to Cuba, that all states will
recognize gay unions and that few will retain criminal penalties for
marijuana use by individuals. Whether or not Democrats retain control
of Congress, whether or not Obama is reelected, these reforms are
inevitable -- not because politics has changed but because society
has.

A few reference points: In April, Obama lifted restrictions on travel
and remittances by Cuban-Americans. Last month, the U.S. Justice
Department announced that it would no longer prosecute cases involving
medical marijuana in the 14 states where it is now permitted. Same-sex
marriages are recognized in six states and counting. In a larger
frame, loosening restrictions and lax enforcement reflect evolving
social norms. Since Bush left office, American tourists no longer
worry about being prosecuted for visiting Havana without a Treasury
licence. Gay unions have been celebrated on the New York Times
"Weddings" page since 2002. And have you been to Los Angeles recently?
You need only tell an on-site doctor at a cheerful, walk-in pot
emporium that you've been suffering from anxiety to walk out with a
perfectly legal bag of Captain Kush.

The chief reason these prohibitions are falling away is the evolving
definition of the pursuit of happiness. What's driving the
legalization of gay marriage is not so much the moral argument but the
pressures from couples who want to sanctify their relationships,
obtain legal benefits and raise children in a stable environment.
What's advancing the decriminalization of marijuana is not just the
demand for pot as medicine but the number of adults who use it and
don't believe they should face legal jeopardy. What's bringing the
change on Cuba is not just the epic failure of the 48-year-old U.S.
embargo, but the demand on the part of Americans who want to go there.

For similar reasons, there is not likely to be any retreat on the
basic legal status of the right to have an abortion or own a gun. In
each of these cases, popular demand for an individual right is simply
too powerful to overcome. The Internet has been a crucial amplifier of
all such claims. With pornography, and gambling, the Web itself became
an irrepressible distribution tool for indulgences that were once
perforce local. When it comes to gay marriage, the Web has accelerated
the recognition of a new civil right by serving as an organizing tool
and information clearinghouse. More broadly, the freest communications
medium the world has ever known has raised expectations of personal
liberty. In a world where everyone has his own printing press,
restrictions on private behaviour become increasingly untenable.