A fresh approach in American war on drugs

Obama's end to raids on medical marijuana likely to reignite debate on decriminalization
March 21, 2009
Mitch Potter
WASHINGTON BUREAU, Toronto Star

WASHINGTON – Wars rarely end at the first hint of truce. But when the Obama administration quietly announced this week it will halt federal raids against dispensers of medical marijuana, advocates of drug policy reform found themselves in a tickertape mood.

Could this be Armistice Day for America's decades-long war on drugs? Not quite. Not yet, at least.

But the new government's reversal of the Bush-era's zero-tolerance on pot comes amid a confluence of signals that America may be nearing a turning point in its approach to prohibition. Exit "reefer madness" and enter a more reasoned debate on what works, with the goal of targeting deadly cartels who today place drugs in the hands of American children with greater ease than ever before.

With the U.S. economy in shambles and its banking systems on life support, people on all sides of the great drug debate agree on this much: the last thing America needs right now is to get stoned.

(More here.)