TODAY'S VERSION OF PROHIBITION IS JUST AS BAD FOR AMERICA

In the ongoing battle over the legalization of marijuana for
medicinal purposes, the Food and Drug Administration has now shown
that ideology can bend almost anything to its will.

Last week, the FDA claimed that "no sound scientific studies"
supported the medical use of the drug - flatly contradicting a 1999
review by the Institute of Medicine. That seems strange, given that
the Institute is part of the National Academy of Sciences, the
nation's most prestigious scientific advisory agency.

Could one group of scientists be so far off as to come up with a
completely incorrect reading of the medicinal value of the drug? I
doubt it - and so do many other who feel that right-wing politics
have trumped science yet again.

But that, it seems to me, is the least important issue connected to
the legalization of drugs. The three most important reasons to call a
cease-fire in the insane "war" we've been fighting for decades are
the reduction of crime, the expansion of the tax base and the
contribution to the economy.

Whether or not anyone likes it, recreational drug use has become part
of American social life - and it is that use, not addiction, that
fuels the trade. If addicts alone were spending money on drugs, the
problem could have been licked or dramatically reduced long ago.

As for the reduction of crime, we are constantly getting benumbing
reports that tell us how many inner-city young men drop out of school
to sell drugs, naively looking for a fast way to make big money. Such
young men are the drones of the business. If we ended the illicit
nature of the trade, the drones would either stay in school or
surprise us and find a legal line of work.

The real economic winners in the drug business these days are
high-level dealers and traders. When it comes to them, American is
being played for a chump in exactly the way we were during
Prohibition. That's when the Mafia gathered all the capital it needed
to become a formidable national criminal organization because public
demand for drinking was greater than the consequences of drinking.

If we ended today's version of Prohibition and legalized drugs, we
could stop the murderous drug wars and pull billions of dollars out
of the shadow world. Taxes could be levied and public rehabilitation
centers supported.

In that way, victory could be pulled from the jaws of very obvious
defeat. Some call this position defeatist - but it's far more
realistic than craven. It's simply a matter of facing the facts of
our time rather than pushing our heads under the sand - no matter how
many young men are in our penal system for either the sale or the
possession of drugs, no matter how many are killed in drug wars, and
no matter how obvious it has become that recreational drug use is here to stay.

We are still a long way from waking up to these facts. But we can
wake up, and we will. After all, once upon a time, many thought
slavery would go on forever and women would never get the vote.