Shocker

High Hopes

Legalizing marijuana promoted in Wall Street Journal.

The stern op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal is not the place you would expect to find an impassioned appeal to legalize marijuana. But to mark the ending of Prohibition 75 years ago, the free marketers have invited Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, to argue that our stern drug laws should be overturned. He says drug prohibition has led to 500,000 people in jail for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions spent annually to fund a drug war that has failed; thousands dying each year from drug overdoses “that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves”; and tens of thousands needlessly infected with AIDS and hepatitis C because the anti-drug policies undermine responsible public health policies. Nadelmann has high hopes Obama will make some modest changes but, he argues, that is nowhere near enough to solve the problem.