420: PUT DOWN THAT JOINT AND PICK UP A PEN

A year ago I wrote a piece on 420, contrasting legalized booze and
illicit pot. It generated a good deal of reader feedback. A common thread:

"The war against drugs is a money making business. Prisons are a
money making business. How are you going to replace all those jobs
for the DEA...prisons, prison officers, other suppliers?"

"This is America, people. Europeans are socially enlightened, we are
not. Europeans are progressive, we are not...frustrating, sure, but
it's not going to change in my lifetime..."

"We Americans love to talk the talk, but never seem to have the time
or energy to walk the walk."

"...it won't change any time soon. As long as the majority of people
are ignorant and vote accordingly, our politics and laws will reflect
that ignorance."

"I would not expect a sitting President or Senator to take up your
cause until there is a MASSIVE public cry for it."

In other words, say these readers, no matter what common sense and
science have to offer on the subject it's not going to happen. The
willful inflexibility of special interests (namely those profiting
from the drug war: drug cartels, drug warriors, Big Pharma, prison
industrial complex, et al) is simply too powerful to overcome.

Given slavish governmental allegiance to the drug war (over the
course of eight presidencies), skepticism is understandable. But unwarranted.

Look at what's happening across the country. Formerly timid state
legislatures, admittedly driven in some instances by economic hard
times, are actually considering the legalization of marijuana.
Cannabis is, after all, the biggest (untaxed, unregulated) cash crop
in the country.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco -- before the recession hit
with full force, and with only three months on the job -- introduced
a bill in the California State Assembly that would have allowed
adults to grow, buy, sell, and possess cannabis. While it passed the
assembly's public safety committee, by a 4-3 vote, AB 390 died when
the health committee failed to act on it by January of this year.
Reintroduced as AB 2254, the identical bill, in its current or a
future incarnation, promises to get continuing play at the state
capitol and in the national media.

We've witnessed a veritable explosion of cannabis law reform in other
states and local communities: medical marijuana; decriminalization;
pot as a city's lowest law enforcement priority.

But the eyes and the imagination of the nation remain fixed on
California. As lawmakers wrestle with conscience and courage, the
voters of that state are taking matters into their own hands.
"Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis 2010," the brainchild of
Oaksterdam University founder Rich Lee, has qualified for the
November ballot. Support is polling at 56 percent.

Enthusiastic editorial backing from across the country, along with
the endorsement of a vast array of trade unions, professional
associations, and drug policy reform organizations bodes well for the
connected causes of liberty, justice and economic recovery: According
to the State Board of Equalization, California's tax collector, the
initiative will net the state a cool $1.4 billion a year.

The campaign is meeting pitched resistance from opponents, which will
only intensify as election day nears. Conventional wisdom suggests a
softening of support as undiscerning voters succumb to the scare
tactics of forces determined to keep pot illegal.

We all know that the federal government trumps the states when it
comes to drug laws, and that against all concepts of sanity,
marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug (in the company of PCP and China
White) -- and therefore a top enforcement priority. But Attorney
General Eric Holder, with the blessings of President Obama, has
promised to honor the will of lawmakers in the individual states,
whether those lawmakers be legislators or citizen activists.

You don't have to be a Californian to strike a blow for freedom and
justice. As a voter and/or a toker, perhaps at 4:20 on 4/20/10 you'll
pick up a pen and compose a letter to the editor and/or write a check
to the campaign. What happens in the nation's largest state will
certainly reverberate throughout the other forty-nine.