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February 06, 2009
Not With a Bang, but a (Cautious) Announncement
I should have realized that the point at which the drug war began to lose momentum would be subtle and uncertain; more like a tipping point than the concession speech that represented John McCain’s solitary moment of grace last November.While it’s still too early to be certain, that moment may have come yesterday and, typical of the confusing mess the drug war has become, may have been signaled by a terse item in the Washington Times, rather than an Op-Ed in its more liberal New York namesake.
Some ten days ago, when the first bleating of the most paranoid reformers announced an improbable DEA raid in South Lake Tahoe, I speculated that Obama himself almost certainly hadn’t authorized it personally and, because he is both sensible and consistent, would probably back away from DEA business-as-usual tactics if pressed. At that time only a half-dozen mentions of the raid could be found on Google; yesterday, more than thirty-five pages appeared and the only mainstream media item was at the top of the list.
One hopes the sleazy side of reform, as represented by stoner culture, will remain in the dark long enough for their more restrained brethren to realize that delayed concession almost certainly wasn’t a result of direct pressure from either reform or the mainstream media; more likely, it was a deluge of phone calls to the White House from individual pot smokers mobilized over the internet and coming as far out of their closets as they dared.
The implications of the United States backing away from cannabis prohibition are far more profound than most people realize. Now that we have a president who seems up to the job, let's give him a chance to think it through before leading the nation and the world into what should be a more promising future.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at February 6, 2009 03:44 PM