NOT WITH A BANG

To the Editor:

The most interesting thing about Wisconsin's medical marijuana opinion
survey ("Legalizing Medicine," 10 April) is its insight into how America's
War on Drugs will end: Not with a police bang, but with a quiet ballot-box
whimper.

Students (18 or older) and retirees both approve of medical marijuana
roughly at a whopping 90 percent. When the 4 percent uncertainty is
applied, Republicans and Democrats have nearly equal approval rates,
supporting medical marijuana in a middle ground around 81 percent. Not
counting the "miscellaneous occupation" category, which probably represents
a small and low-confidence sample, the lowest support category is the media
market area of Duluth and Superior, where more than seven of every ten
adults approve of medical marijuana. All other categories and regions range
from mid-70 percent to 90+ percent support for a substance which, by
conventional politician and police fear mongering, has been destroying the
moral fiber of society for a century. In other words, almost nobody's
afraid of the Satan weed from hell anymore, and in the doctor-patient
context, whopping Wisconsin majorities find it perfectly appropriate.

So the only question is time. How long will it take the die-hard zero-
tolerance drug warrior prosecutors, police and legislators to do just that:
Die, so the vast majority of citizens can shape policies in a way they find
sane and rational?

The numbers clearly show that when a 65-year-old lock-em-all-up pot
prohibitionist finally retires and lumbers off the political stage, he or
she will be quietly replaced by a younger public servant with very
different ideas.

This week we have learned, sadly, that Wisconsin leads the nation in the
rate of African-Americans locked up in its jails and prisons, and most of
that for drug offenses. It's long past time for the die-hards to die, easy
or hard, so Wisconsin can regain its political sanity and its commitment to
racial justice.

Robert Merkin