The MarijuanaNews Report

By Richard Cowan

In the last week, three things happened that the supposedly “serious” people in the media and politics simply could not fathom.

First, Drew Carey, the very bright libertarian comic/actor, did an Internet video for the Reason Foundation’s Reason.tv saying, “I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it – safely and easily.”

Some of the comments in the entertainment media were breathless speculations on whether this could hurt his career. Well, to take nothing away from Carey, why would it hurt his career to come out in favor of something that is supported by more than three fourths of Americans? By almost any measure, medical marijuana is one of the least controversial issues on the public agenda, but many of the “serious” people – who take themselves much too seriously – think that they own the public agenda. They do not.

Second, Ron Paul’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination announced that they had raised over $4 million dollars in one day. That is not supposed to happen for “fringe candidates” who oppose the Drug War. Even the Liberal anti-war bloggers are amazed, perhaps because they seem afraid to mention medical marijuana, much less the whole drug war.

Plus, Paul is a Congressman from a very conservative suburb of Houston, who has been easily reelected for years, despite (or because of?) the opposition of the Republican Party leadership. Even some so-called liberal Democrats in California were afraid to vote for medical marijuana this year, but Paul has never had a problem taking a principled stand that is much more “radical.”

Years ago, I was on a Texas Public TV program with Paul, when a quack in the studio audience talked about his own problem with “drugs," and cited that as justification for the drug war. Paul, who is a medical doctor himself, responded, “The fact that you couldn’t control yourself doesn’t give you the right to control everyone else.”

I think that his comment was the most devastating rebuttal of the “I used to be an addict, so now I am an expert...” line that I have ever heard.

Paul has very little chance of getting the Republican nomination, because he really believes in the principles of limited government, which the others only pretend to uphold, but he can always go back to his safe House seat, while many other Republicans are looking at retirement, voluntary or otherwise.

Finally, “We the People” have done it again. More than 56% of the voters in Denver, Colorado voted to make marijuana possession the “lowest priority” for the police. The police may ignore it in the short run, but the Democrats will hold their Presidential Nominating Convention there next year, and they are in the business of counting votes.

But the voters in Hailey, Idaho, near Sun Valley, went even further. They not only voted to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest police priority, they also voted for medical marijuana, and industrial hemp. They did reject an initiative that would have legalized marijuana and required the city to regulate sales.

I remember a bumper sticker that I saw once – in Washington, DC, appropriately – that said, “If the people will lead, the leaders will follow.” For a variety of reasons, there are going to be major political changes in the US and other Western democracies over the next few years. It is clear that the people are increasingly leading against cannabis prohibition and if the cannabis community will study what has just happened, we can lead the way back to freedom.

Richard Cowan is the former National Director of NORML and currently the publisher of MarijuanaNews.com. Email him at Cowan@MarijuanaNews.com