Free the Weed, Strategy for Legalization

Fifteen years ago, I was standing in a valley of several square miles which was completely saturated with marijuana. Later that same day, I was in another field several hundred miles away, but this one was filled with poppies. What was I doing? I was in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, and other Central and South American countries, involved with helping the local communities rid their area of drug producers.

When I worked for our government in support of these efforts in the early 1990′s, drug producers would go into a village, often after executing someone as an example, and conscript the village residents into manufacturing marijuana, cocaine, or opiates. Today, they are still hard at work conscripting residents and forcing them to manufacture their illegal drugs.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m a strong proponent for legal marijuana, but I’m adamantly against the purchase or distribution of “cartel schwag” because there are innocents who die at the hands of the cartels. I would rather ‘never smoke pot again’ than line the pockets of cartels with my money. I’m hoping that someday, it will all be domestic.

I left government service a little more than a year ago, after serving more than 20 years wearing a uniform. In my senior military days, I dealt with policy and strategy, creating different solutions for different issues. Today I spend my time working policy and strategy for a University while working to influence legalization policies through letter writing and blogging.

During my research I came across a paper written by Ross Raffin which describes, in his opinion, how the current legalization movement is being done in a Federal way. He articulates quite accurately what the Obama administration is doing for the legalization movement.

Standford Progressive,

Many advocates of legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana feel Obama has abandoned them. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a consistent warrior against decriminalization. Attorney General Eric Holder has a history of opposing drug policy reforms and considers the adult use of marijuana equivalent to public nuisance. Even Joe Biden, when asked about pain management and medical cannabis, responded that “there’s got to be a better answer than marijuana.” But the reality is that the Obama administration has turned the tides in favor of legalization and decriminalization in a much stronger and subtler way than open rhetorical endorsements.

Optimism for drug reform began when Obama ended federal raids on cannabis dispensaries in states which allow medical marijuana. What marijuana advocates fail to realize is that with this the Obama administration initiated a small but extremely important step towards legalization. More importantly, it has done so in a way to insulate itself from Republican attacks and attempts to distract the public.

If Obama were to walk up to a microphone today and announce that he is going to submit legislation to congress to tax, regulate, and legalize marijuana, we might have a Congress ready to impeach, or at the very least, we’d have a  Congress who wouldn’t take him seriously any longer.

The Obama administration’s public hesitation towards marijuana legalization is not only understandable but, considering the impact of the current economic legislation and programs the administration is endorsing, the most pragmatic and efficient route for the moment. Legalization and decriminalization advocates should focus efforts on state-wide legalization, not nation-wide. If states are challenged in lawsuits, than the Supreme Court will be forced to rule on whether legislation criminalizing marijuana should be struck down. This is preferable to the executive putting forward a proposal to legalize marijuana from the top down. When Obama tells the country that marijuana legalization is not the path he chooses for America, he means to say that the path must first be drawn by us.

What we need to do, as a point of policy and strategy, is continue what we are doing right now. At the grass roots level, we need to be even more active in our local NORML chapters, and try as hard as we can by rallying as much support as possible to support any and all decriminalization bills or propositions in our communities and states as we can.

Our president is allowing democracy to decide the fate of marijuana, so let’s use democracy to end the prohibition and re-legalize marijuana. Start a NORML chapter, or attend a meeting and get active! It’s a chance for you to serve your country.