In the almost three decades that I have been following the controversies surrounding marijuana prohibition and the related issues there has never before been the volume of news coverage or the level of criticism that we are seeing now.

In the 1970s, before the prohibitionist counterattack, there was actually far less to report, because there was far less of prohibitionism to criticize, and it seemed that we were winning by default. However, "the course of human events" turned against us to a degree that is still hard to understand. By the late 1980s, when Arnold Trebach founded the Drug Policy Foundation he thought it politically appropriate to call it "the loyal opposition" -- using a term borrowed from monarchies and evolving democracies where opposition to any policies is viewed with distrust. The DPF cultivated a "conservative" image, and to a large degree this was crucial to its success.

When I became National Director of NORML in 1992 I coined the phrase "the myth of consensus" to describe the almost total blackout on any discussion of the issues. George Bush had said that "Everyone is against illegal drugs." End of discussion. Or rather, the discussion never began.

For years the prohibitionists had simply refused to debate anyone from NORML or even academic critics of prohibitionist policies, and the media would then use that as an excuse not to allow the opposition to be heard. After all, they wanted to present both sides!

To the credit of the producers of the radio and television news shows, they finally stopped giving the prohibitionists veto power over their programming, so the prohibitionists had to send a talking head or give the anti-prohibitionists the stage alone.

However, the blackout had been so total that I said that DEAland needed to follow the late Soviet policy of glasnost – openness, allowing criticism of the government policies. In the late Soviet period, as it became apparent that dissidents were not going to be arrested, more and more people spoke up, and it also quickly became obvious that most people simply did not believe in the state ideology.

To an astonishing degree marijuana prohibition has become the state ideology of DEAland. Everything centers around it and is subordinated to it. As Solzhenitsyn said, when the lying stops, the system will collapse. The same process has begun In DEAland.

Of course, in DEAland anti-prohibitionists in major cities have almost never been arrested. That would have created too much publicity, but this is no longer the land of the free, because it is no longer the home of the brave. People who have nothing to fear, still live in fear.

Well, almost nothing to fear…

In the Fall of 1992 at about the time I went to Washington, Donald Scott, a wealthy Californian was murdered in an absurd raid on his ranch by a variety of narks from multiple jurisdictions seeking marijuana cultivation. The object was clearly to seize the very valuable 200 acre ranch just north of Malibu. No marijuana was found, but no one was ever punished for killing Scott.

However, what I found even more striking was the complete lack of news coverage of the shooting. After all, Scott was a wealthy white man, not the sort whose judicial murder is unthreatening to the power structure. We talked to reporters who always expressed surprise at the story. "We haven’t heard anything about it," they would say; to which we would respond, "Exactly!"

Seven years later the shooting under similar circumstances of Mario Paz, a working class Mexican immigrant in a Los Angeles suburb was immediately reported on the front page of the prohibitionist LA Times, and even the Washington Post has reported that the FBI is investigating the incident.
See
The Washington Post Reports On FBI Investigation of Police Murdering A Marijuana Suspect.
Would It Have Been Okay, If They Had Found Some Marijuana?
The Czar Says It’s Not A War, But Go Tell His Widow
Lies Have Consequences.

However, it should be noted that neither Scott nor Paz were anti-prohibitionists. They seem to have been apolitical. That did not protect them. Indeed, that may have contributed to their vulnerability.

Now, two very different Republican Governors, Bush of Texas and Johnson of New Mexico have raised the issue of prohibition in very different ways. Johnson did it deliberately and has found himself the focus of largely favorable publicity, while Bush’s reticence about admitting – or denying – that he used cocaine in the 1970s has been widely used to question the double standard for the rich and poor, especially black and white.

While that is good news, Al Gore continues to get a free ride on his marijuana use prior to serving in the Administration that has presided over the arrest of more marijuana smokers than any other. (Amazingly, Clinton has also gotten a free ride on numerous allegations that he used cocaine. )

See
Alan Bock Raises The Right Questions About Politicians’ Drug Use:
Not Just Cocaine, but Marijuana!

As the controversy surrounding Bush’s reticence indicates, it seems many would be satisfied with equal injustice. If Bush had been punished, would that have justified locking up a generation of poor blacks from the inner cities? That seems to be the implication of many of his critics on the left for whom "equality" has historically been more important than individual freedom.

Other critics simply content themselves with saying that the "drug war is a failure." Certainly, it has failed to deliver the "drug-free America" that we have been repeatedly promised.
See
NORML Board of Directors Member Co-Authors Article on the Failure of the Drug War

However, this line lets proponents of prohibition claim that we are simply "not doing enough." If we just spend more money, arrest more people, "drug test" everyone, maybe invade Colombia, or seal off the Mexican border, and the Canadian border too, then…

It should be noted however, that very little of the current criticism of "the drug war" deals with marijuana prohibition and the systematic lying that is necessary to maintain it. By focusing on "the drug war" in general the critics think they don’t have to deal with marijuana prohibition. Indeed, they would prefer not to have to deal with the subject of marijuana at all, except to say – as did Governor Johnson – that we should "begin" by decriminalizing it.

This line feeds the paranoia of the prohibitionist fanatics who think that allowing a dying person to have medical marijuana or allowing farmers to plant hemp is simply the first step in a plot to "legalize all drugs" for children.

Why not simply ignore the paranoia of this lunatic fringe? Well, for one thing, they may be lunatics, but they definitely are not "fringe."
See
The Mfiles – More Paranoid Than The Xfiles But Less Believable;
Federal Funds Used For Prohibitionist Propaganda Against Washington State Medical Marijuana Initiative
Lies and Libels and Nonsense

This nonsense is the official position of the enormous "drug education/prevention/treatment" industry and the government funded prohibitionist propaganda machine which they both feed and feed on. When I say that it is their "official position," I mean that quite literally.

It is funded by both state and federal money and by collaborators in the mass media.
See
Drug Czar Brags About The Entertainment Industry and The Media Prostituting Themselves
For Prohibitionist Propaganda  -- 2 Items

There is absolutely no way that they are going to turn off that spigot. The politicians are prisoners of this machine, which they created, and they cannot stop feeding it.

As the reaction to Governor Johnson’s statements has demonstrated, fealty to reefer madness is a "litmus test" for the Republican Party. It has not hurt his popularity with the people, but the Republican Party is largely controlled at the local level by ideologues. They cannot free themselves of the prosecutorial culture from which so many of them, most notably Bob Barr, have sprung.
See
NORML Director David Boaz Praises New Mexico Governor -- 2 Articles

However, as the drug warriors find themselves in the unaccustomed and uncomfortable position of having to deal with critics, they are adapting the party line to sound "kinder and gentler" -- as another Bush once said.

The Drug Czar wants to stop calling his business a "war." Of course, that will not resurrect Mario Paz. They don’t intend to stop the violence. They don’t want to stop seizing property. (Forfeiture reform is DOA in the Senate.) They just want to call it something else.
See
Forfeiture Abuses At the State Level Will Continue.
The War On Marijuana Users Has A Strong Financial Incentive –
Clinton’s Home Town Newspaper On His State’s Laws:
"First came the question: Do you believe in the president’s war on drugs?"

"Treatment," for example…

Being against "treatment" is like being against "research." And of course, the government wants to do more of both. However, much of the "treatment" -- like much of the "research" -- is actually politically driven and based on "reefer madness." How could it be otherwise? It is simply not possible to admit that government at all levels, its laws and policies, and its subsidized treatment and research industries have been lying to the people for decades.
See
The Real Data On Teen Marijuana "Abuse Treatment" – What The Media Don’t Tell Us:
"Half of marijuana treatment admissions were referred through the criminal justice system."
-- Analysis By Richard Cowan
and
Hazelden Drug Rehab Hustlers Urge Parents To Lie To Children About Marijuana:
"30 years ago marijuana typically contained less than 1 percent THC ...
today marijuana typically contains 15 percent THC."

In the late stages of ideological decay, the only the true believers remain loyal, and they tend to be both fanatical and dumber than posts. That means that the "program" will be intensified by people like the Florida Drug Czar with his anti-marijuana fungus scheme.
See
Montana NORML Files Suit On Killer Fungus Research;
and
Florida Czarino Attacks the St. Petersburg Times; Backpeddles On Fungus Scheme

Then there is the problem of our "watchdog" media. Witness the Washington Post telling parents:
"They should emphasize that people know a lot more about the effects of drugs than they did back then, when much of the concern about the dangers of marijuana centered on the herbicide used to kill the plant rather than the plant itself. Research has shown that marijuana harms short-term memory, the ability to concentrate,fine-motor skills and sexual development in boys; that marijuana is a "gateway" to more severe drug use; and that it is far more potent than it used to be."
See
The Washington Post Says That Parents Should Tell Children The Truth
And Provides Them With The Lies To Use While They Are Doing It.
and links

Wonderfully, most wonderfully, this is from an article under the header:
"Parents Urged to Tell Truth About Drug Use." It even quotes a representative of the Partnership for A Marijuana-Free America saying, "If you do choose to lie, if at any time your child picks up on the fact that you have not been truthful, your credibility has been blown. We recommend parents not take that gamble."

See
When The Partnership For A Marijuana-Free America Speaks,
The Media For A Marijuana-Free America Parrots.
Widely Reported Press Release About Kids and "Drugs" Mentions Marijuana 29 Times, Alcohol 0!

Pause for laughter.

The Post will have a much more difficult time than most papers digging itself out from the accumulated lies, but the DEAland media have largely sold out, so they are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
See
Australian Magazine Analyzes Drug War Prohibitionist Propaganda Including Its DEAland Sponsors:
"Figures show that by far, the bulk of the money spent and resources allocated by law enforcement agencies
is being used to get "tough on marijuana", arguably the least ‘dangerous’ of all illicit drugs."
Of 85,046 Drug Related Offences In Australia From 1996 - 1997 -- 69,136 Were For Cannabis.

Nonetheless, while the accumulated lies pile up, the accumulated damage does also. Twelve million marijuana arrests and the second(?) highest level of incarceration in the world certainly have had unintended consequences that we have just begun to reap.

Also, the prohibitionists, and perhaps more important, the medical establishment have lost the people on the medical marijuana issue. The quacks can quack all they want to, but it is amazing how little impact they have.
See
Maine Medical Association Committee Opposes Medical Marijuana.
Because Marijuana Is A ''gateway drug leading users to frequently use stronger illicit or harmful drugs.''
Among Other Embarrassments.

Similarly, the DEA has lost the farmers on industrial hemp. The longer they lie and stall, the better it is for the anti-prohibitionist movement.
See
California Democratic Assemblywoman Proposing Resolution To Legalize Hemp.
Says DEA Will Issue Permits, But Will They.

There is also a general loss of respect for authority in many other areas. The CIA’s role in the cocaine business is widely grasped in the black community.
See
If The Media Cannot Report On the Well-Known CIA Role in the Iran/Contra Cocaine Business,
How Can They Begin To Tell The Story of Marijuana Prohibition?

The new revelations about the massacre in Waco fuels an anti-government sentiment in other circles. The election of Jesse Ventura is another symptom of this widespread disaffection. "The Two Party System" is increasing recognized as simply a system to limit the options. In Kentucky, long-time hemp advocate Gatewood Galbraith has the Democrats worried about the November gubernatorial election. Before Ventura they would have just shrugged him off.

In this context, will it be so hard for the people to understand that marijuana prohibition is not just a failure, but a counterproductive fraud? In this context, is it really so difficult to accept the fact that almost the entire establishment is complicit in it?

Meanwhile back in the USSR, glasnost was intended to make Communism work. When it turned out that a majority of the people in positions of power knew that it could not work, and that it had been sustained only by decades of lying and intimidation, it collapsed. Discussing the problems with prohibition imposes the same risks. That is why the prohibitionists have tried to suppress any discussion. Any criticism was "pro-drug."

There is one key difference here in DEAland. Marijuana prohibition is not central to making capitalism work. On the contrary it violates the most basic principles of free markets. The leading critics of prohibition have -- until recently – largely come from the libertarian right.

The good news here is that – as with the Civil Rights movement – the anti-prohibitionist movement is not attacking, but rather appealing to, the basic principles on which the country was founded.

The "bad news" here is that DEAland is an enormously rich country with a very deeply entrenched establishment that can afford much more folly than the old USSR. Indeed, the Soviet folly was fundamental. The prohibitionist folly is parasitic and peripheral. Ironically, it costs all businesses far more than it profits some.

The greatest threat to the prohibitionists comes from two new developments over which they have little or no control, the Internet and events in other countries, which often are reported only on the Internet.
See
How Does the Washington Post Tell Its Readers About New German Government’s Marijuana Policy?
Very Carefully.
and
How The Washington Post Tells Its Readers
About The House of Lords Report On Medical Marijuana -- With Great Subtlety!

If the accumulated damage caused by prohibition is very serious in DEAland, it is often disastrous in other countries. At a recent Hemispheric drug war conference in Ottawa, the participants asserted their independence to a slight degree.
See The Ottawa Citizen Tells It Like It Is:
A Great Editorial On Drug War Summit,
Medical Marijuana and DEAland Narco-Imperialism
and
"How to Finance Conflict Worldwide" -- The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

They rejected DEAland’s unilateral process of "certifying" countries as "compliant" with our policies. They will establish a process in which we will be judged as a consumer, in addition to judging others as "suppliers."

This mini-rebellion was not anti-prohibitionist, but this is a major step in a global rebellion against DEAland narco-imperialism. The questions about the Bushlet’s nose candy are international news. There is absolutely no reason that Colombia and Mexico should die for our sins, especially if the next President of the Supernark is going to be another cokehead.

Moreover, the degree to which marijuana prohibition in particular is thought of as being a peculiarly American obsession, as it increasingly is in Europe, Canada, and Australia -- and especially Jamaica -- the more open those countries become to changes that challenge prohibitionism as an international ideology.
See
Jamaica Attempts To Escape DEAland Pressure To Maintain Marijuana Prohibition

There are many more significant voices of dissent in the media in these countries. Americans may not be able to find them on a map, but everyone in the world can find DEAland, and they resent our meddling in their affairs.

It is one thing to lie to the people about Holland, but it will not be possible to insulate the American people from the entire civilized world. Not in the age of the Internet.
See
The Drug Czar’s Testimony On "The Drug Legalization Movement In America" Has Three Parts:
Lie About The Anti-Prohibitionist Movement; Lie About Marijuana; Lie About The Netherlands.
With A Little Lying About Me.

All of this activity reflects an accelerating process.

For people in pain, and for people in prison, however, the most important question remains simply: How long must they endure?

I do not know the answer to that. There are too many variables, and I have seen the prohibitionists counterattack in the past. The huge sums that are poured into prohibitionist propaganda, and the intrinsically "conservative" nature of our system which makes abrupt change difficult, work against us.

Although we won the arguments long ago, we now have the Internet to help us apply them. That is really what Marijuananews has been trying to do. For Marijuananews all this is very challenging. It has never been my purpose just to report the news, but also to offer analysis.
See
Marijuana Prohibition, Media Criticism, Copyrights and the 8^th and 9^th Commandments.

Now I want to take my coverage of the struggle for freedom to a different level.

There are many tens of thousands of people engaged in non-violent civil disobedience. These activities are little understood, and even less reported.

The growers, patients, and activists are not waiting for the laws to change. There is active resistance to marijuana prohibition around the world, and there are many things that can be done to help speed change. The Internet is not just a means of communication, but also a tool for organization. Indeed, it is a catalyst for spontaneous organization of the sort that has never existed before.

The Internet is our medium and our tool and we must use it to the fullest.