"Cops love [pot prohibition]," he continues. "Pot smokers and pot dealers don't shoot back; they're easy to bust and you get all this money from the Feds for drug prohibition. Schools like it because it gives a concrete bit of evidence you can use to get rid of and isolate and punish a troublesome or rebellious kid. When you start peeling it back, marijuana prohibition serves a great many powerful interests."
Indeed, the "drug-war industrial complex is not to be sneezed at," says Mirken, who points out that the pushback has already started. "Marijuana potency surpasses 10 percent," the headline of an alarmist cnn.com article warned last week.
In January, before he withdrew his name from consideration for surgeon general, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta penned an op-ed for Time titled "Why I Would Vote No On Pot." In it, the neurosurgeon argued that the damage marijuana might do to one's lungs or short-term memory essentially outweighed the fact that "permissive legalization, accompanied by stringent regulations and penalties, can cut down on illegal-drug trafficking and make communities safer."
Even liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias (yglesias.thinkprogress.org), while receptive to decriminalization, confessed to fearing "the creation of a legal marijuana industry with lobbyists and advertising aimed at creating as many problem pot smokers as possible."
Light up at the end of the tunnel
Certainly, some of these fears may have merit. Just as certainly, the pro-pot side has plenty of valid points of its own. So let's hash it out.
"One of the most hideous things about the drug war is not only the imprisonment, and not only the civil-liberties [violations]," says Baum. "It's the way it shut down debate. It created forbidden speech in the US. And I am delighted to see that changing."
"It feels like a sea change," says Nadelmann of the past six months. "The credibility and stature of the people speaking out. The reception we're getting from legislators. The interest of the media."
At the same time, however, he's well-aware that "it's a little like surfing: we're riding a wave right now like we've never seen before. That wave's gonna crash, things will quiet down, we'll be way ahead, and then we'll have to ride the next wave."
As the tides roll, the Bay State keeps drafting new legislation. There's currently a bill in the house, the Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Act, that Mike Crawford — a board member of MassCann/NORML who says he's noticed more and more bipartisan support on Beacon Hill — thinks has a "very good chance" of passing.
"It's a reasonable bill," says Crawford of the legislation filed by Democratic state representative Frank Smizik, of Brookline, which would regulate medical marijuana use by patients approved by doctors and certified by the department of public health. "It's not crazy." Another pair of bills — H 2929 and S 1801 — each of which seeks to "Regulate and Tax the Cannabis Industry" (according to the bills' language) — were filed in January. Those face a much steeper climb.
Ultimately, whether it's in 2016 or 2022 — or even sooner — the endgame of pot advocates is to abolish federal prohibition, just as was done with alcohol in 1933, and to allow states to draft their own laws — whatever they may be.
"That may mean that Mississippi stays dry for another 30 years, as was the case with alcohol," explains Nadelmann. "It may mean that California or Nevada allow marijuana to be sold round the clock in corner stores. And it may mean that some other state allows marijuana to be sold legally, but only in the equivalent of the New Hampshire or Utah state-licensed liquor outlets."
"I think in five years, more states will be doing what Massachusetts is doing," says Frank. "And I'm hoping within 10 that the federal government will get smart and allow the state to do what it wants to do."
Meanwhile, it's hard not to feel like we're heading in the right direction. But it's important to keep pressing the issue. Crawford notes that he and his fellow activists have been redoubling their efforts lately. Otherwise, he says, there's no telling when "this window may be gone."
As anyone forced by prohibition to smoke on the sly knows, it's best to keep the window open.
Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard[a]phx.com.
