“The so called War on Drugs has not succeeded in making significant reductions in drug use, drug arrests or violence,” the Democrat wrote during the Reddit “ask me anything” chat. “We are pouring huge amounts of our public resources into this current effort that are bleeding our public treasury and unnecessarily undermining human potential.”
And there are plenty of people, left and right, who agree. Yet we cannot undo it. Any politician – from Gary Johnson on down – who advocates legalizing weed is wrapped up tight and thrown into the bin marked “Political Heretics.” Why?
Certainly, there’s a vast institutional army beyond the Drug War, DEA and so forth. But I think there’s more to it. I think there’s a kind of error message that hist the brain of certain voters when the real, actual prospect of ending the Drug War arrives on a legislative ballot. They may understand the logic, but somehow voting for illegal drugs feels wrong.
But I salute Mr. Booker for telling the truth anyway. As a mayor, he has no authority over the laws, but the case needs to be made more and more.
