Do they really think we can be so easily placated?

Is it my imagination or have the various political people and forces that have, previously, championed the failed (and unjust) Drug War been backpedaling rather speedily since the recent government decision not to interfere with state legalization laws? Some days it seems, from reading the NORML, DPA and MPP blogs, that the only thing that seems to be happening faster than legalization measures going on ballots (both medical and full) is various measures to loosen MMJ restrictions, decriminalize, and/or soften draconian and racist drug-enforcement and sentencing policies and laws—many coming from supposedly hardline prohibitionists like Chris Christie of New York, who once took the POV of “no way, no how, not gonna happen you filthy stoners” to actually signing legislation to lift the three-strain restriction on growers and even make vital medication available to small children who need it.


Now many people on our side are still pouting about this because they realize (and correctly) that many of these don't go nearly far enough to give we, the people, what we actually want. They feel these efforts are nothing more than an attempt to create the illusion that our leaders give even half a damn about doing what the people want or doing what is right regarding the drug issue. And they are absolutely right.


But what they don't realize is that this is a good thing.


Think about it: no more than a year or two ago, prior to the historic votes in Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana, these very people laughed in the face of reforming drug laws or decriminalizing marijuana and called it a “pipe dream” (suggesting that the only reason anyone could oppose the status quo of the failed Drug War was not because of it's massive failure on both factual and moral levels but because those people were clearly “stoners” trying to “protect their illegal habit” and, by extension, trying to reinforce the myth that the Drug War was totally working and that there was no logical reason to oppose the methods of the Drug Warriors, entirely by ad hominem assault—or is it a red herring—but either way it was a logical fallacy).


Now, since the successful legalization votes in two states simultaneously, there has been serious talk about drug law reform and decriminalization being an “ideal” solution to our problems with the failed Drug War. By the Drug Warriors! Some of it has even been acted on! And especially since the historic government decision to not interfere with state legalizaiton efforts, it seems that every day I'm hearing about another area where some staunch anti-marijuana nut is green-lighting various half-measures that they thought went “too far” only years ago—like decriminalization, removing mandatory minimum sentencing, removing the huge and racist crack/cocaine disparity, and loosening many excessively tight regulations on medical marijuana access.


Why? They don't seem to be wanting to admit that marijuana is not a dangerous narcotic. They still want to maintain the fraudulent DEA drug scheduling. They still maintain all the former lies about marijuana, as well as all other illicit drugs, even as they begin to allow some grudging access to them in areas that they once considered out of the question. And it's true that even as they make these grudging half-measure concessions they are upping many of their tyrannical and unconstitutional Drug War enforcement methods—such as pushing drug testing incentives in every state that hasn't legalized in any way, and continuing their unjust raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. Why do they even bother?


Well, isn't it obvious? They know they are losing. They know that at some point in the future they will have to bite the bullet, throw in the towel, and drop their precious—and profitable—Drug War. They know they have lost the support of the public, they know the facts have finally come out about their failures and their corruptions, and that they will never again regain the glory days of Reefer Madness propaganda-fueled public ignorance and moral panic. They know there is no way back.


Yes, they are dragging their feet. But the thing is...they're still moving. The momentum of the full-legalization movement has gotten so strong and gotten so much of the population on board that they have been forced to agree to the minute half-measures we were pushing for decades ago, half-measures they had once claimed they would never, under any circumstances, consider. They are trying to negotiate with we, the people, in the hopes of preserving their unearned and undeserved profit and power by giving us some of the smaller demands we've been making since the beginning.


I do think they hope to slow us down this way. Perhaps they believe that the majority of the legalization movement will drop off once they reform a few draconian laws a bit. Perhaps they think that we will accept decriminalization as a reasonable and acceptable compromise. Perhaps they believe that most pro-legalization citizens don't really want legalization and can be bought-off by these grudging little concessions. But they cannot slow us down. They cannot cut us down. And there will be no compromise.


Perhaps they misunderstand the numbers. The numbers are not just one homogenous mass of people who generally don't support the draconian Drug War and its focus on marijuana, ranging from namby pamby “let's just reform a couple laws” and “let's just decriminalize” to the “let sick people get the medicine they need” to the full on “evil stoners” who support full-legalization. These statistics differentiate between these views. The majority isn't just for decriminalization, or for medical marijuana, with a thin stoner fringe that can be easily squashed. There is now a solid majority in most states for FULL legalization.


Or do they understand these numbers and still believe they can fight them? Their other actions suggest this, such as the ramping up of drug testing in states that are still foundering in the dark (despite a majority support for MJ legalization) like Ohio. Do they think that by stopping marijuana users from using they can somehow change those MJ users' minds about legalization and turn the clock back to Reefer Madness levels of ignorance and panic? (I wouldn't expect them to actually consider the fact that 60% to 70% of the American public—the number that support legalization—are not, in fact, stoners, because when your entire career has been built on fraud, ignorance and panic, facts are your sworn enemy.) Do they think that by making medical marijuana available to sick people they can eliminate our momentum by eliminating the most obvious of our moral arguments? After all, prior to the increasing public awareness of the myriad of medical benefits of marijuana it was the prohibitionists who had the heavy-duty emotional smokescreen argument (look at this drug user/former drug user/drug user's family/ etc, how could you not support our Drug War, by not supporting us you are turning your back on these addicts and their families and consigning millions of other people to a lifetime of addiction!), and now we have a much better one, not only emotionally gripping but supported by actual facts, unlike their claims that the Drug War is of any use in fighting addiction or helps addicts in any way rather than simply incarcerating them in private for-profit jails. Do they think that by making a few minute concessions they can distract or placate us enough to slow us down, or peel away enough of our support to perhaps pounce once we lose momentum?


I do think that part of it is that they hope to distract us. They will not distract us.


I do think that part of this is they hope to placate us. They will not placate us.


I do think that part of this is so they can slow us down. They will not slow us down.


We will not lose momentum, and the Drug Warriors big chance to pounce will never come. And I think that part of them knows this, even as they waste their time with these tiny little retreats. Those tiny little retreats will become bigger retreats, and exponentially so now, until there is no more ground they can give up and they are forced to admit their loss whether they like it or not.


So don't pout when they concede, my brothers and sisters in arms! Celebrate! Keep up the fight and don't let your guard down, but definitely celebrate because every concession is another inch of ground those Drug War bastards have been forced to give up. We are winning, and our victory is not only inevitable, is coming soon. And they can feel defeat closing on them. Their concessions are minimal and pathetic and nowhere near enough, but for the first time in forty years they are finally admitting on some level that they are being defeated, and this is evidenced by the fact that they have given any ground at all to us, that they actually are feeling forced to concede ground that was once, not too long ago, non-negotiable. We will increase our efforts and they will give more ground. They will continue to retreat until there is nowhere left to run and their precious Drug War and all its profiteering industries are dead and gone, a footnote in the history books about one of America's greatest domestic blunders.


I'm going to piss on their graves when that day comes. I hope you'll all join me.