Barack Obama: "I'm not in favor of [marijuana] decriminal...

From Reason.com:

Barack Obama on Weed A truth the candidate won’t tell

Steve Chapman | February 4, 2008

It’s a brave position, and therefore exceedingly rare among practicing politicians. Which may be why it didn’t last. Before the day was over, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying he thinks “we are sending far too many first-time non-violent drug users to prison for very long periods of time” but “does not believe that we should treat offenses involving marijuana with a simple fine or just by confiscating the drug.” Recently, he had told a New Hampshire newspaper, “I’m not in favor of decriminalization.”

This episode reveals that as a candidate, Obama is more fond of bold rhetoric than bold policies. But it also proves the impossibility of talking sense on the subject of illicit drugs during a political campaign. That course of action would mean admitting the inadmissible: that the prohibition of cannabis has been cruel, wasteful and fraudulent. Cruel because it leads to the arrest of nearly 700,000 people a year for mere possession of a substance that is comparatively benign.

Wasteful because it expends billions of dollars in police, court and correctional resources that could be deployed against dangerous predators. Fraudulent because it hasn’t solved anything: According to the federal government, nearly 100 million Americans have tried the stuff.

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