Many observers have compared the Obama transition to FDR's in 1932-33, but the important P-word has not come up.
By the summer of 1932, alcohol prohibition had been enshrined in the Constitution for 12 years, as the 18th Amendment. Alcohol-related crime, violence and poisonings were rampant. Speakeasies flourished in large cities. Annual liquor imports from Canada alone soared from the pre-Prohibition level of around 30,000 imperial gallons to more than a million after 1926, mostly smuggled from offshore mother ships frequented by an armada of smaller vessels making regular distributions to their customers.
Despite widespread grumbling over prohibition, the subject of repeal was barely acknowledged by politicians before 1932, fearing loss of rural and religious support. Even Roosevelt took refuge in a states-rights argument, dodging both a wet and a dry label. After wets managed to insert a solid anti-prohibition plank in the Democratic party platform, however, Roosevelt embraced reform. To the roar of convention delegates, he declared unambiguously in his acceptance speech, "This convention wants repeal. Your candidate wants repeal. And I am confident that the United States of America wants repeal." During the campaign, Roosevelt made one speech denouncing prohibition and the subject didn't need to be brought up again. Hoover remained silently faithful to his base.
Following Roosevelt's landslide, for which many credited the party's repudiation of the 18th Amendment, a strong wind blew at the back of reformers. All Roosevelt had to do was to stay out of the way while a new process for changing the Constitution, brilliantly engineered by volunteer lawyers to bypass state legislatures and put the question directly to voters, steamed ahead at record speed, culminating with the ratification by a constitutional convention in Utah exactly 75 years ago today. The vote was carried on a coast-to-coast radio broadcast; it is said that a national cheer could be heard at 3:52 PM mountain time on Tuesday, December 5, 1933, when Utah joined 36 other states to ratify the 21st Amendment, tipping the 18th into history.
The prohibition facing President Obama is better known as the drug war. Since Richard Nixon declared it in 1973, every president, with the enthusiastic complicity of Congress, has escalated it to the point that America locks up a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country on the planet. Spending for incarceration rivals that for higher education.
As with alcohol, the drug prohibition laws don't stop people from obtaining and using their intoxicant of choice. Twenty million American adults use illicit drugs regularly, and only a small fraction of them are caught. Why a disproportionate share of arrestees are blacks and minorities, when their drug use rate is no different from whites, raises troubling questions about enforcement.
While disaffection for the drug war is widely whispered, publicly questioning its wisdom and efficacy remains taboo-like challenging alcohol prohibition as late as 1930. In 2008, the topic was successfully avoided by both candidates and the media, with one notable exception, namely, Mr. Obama's pledge to call off DEA raids on medical marijuana facilities in California.
With an economy in shambles and two active wars, the last thing President Obama needs is an incendiary issue like drug policy reform. He can, however, use his bully pulpit to promote a badly-needed national discussion, asking some uncomfortable but necessary questions, such as whether it is realistic to think that by continuing to pour vast resources into detection, enforcement, prosecution and punishment, we will ever achieve success in the struggle against illegal drugs, and, when we are "successful," how many more people will be locked up, and at what cost to taxpayers. Last month's landslide victories for medical marijuana in Michigan, and decriminalization in Massachusetts, suggest strongly that when given a secret ballot, voters are open to reform.
Legitimizing debate, and making good on his promise in California, won't solve the nation's drug problem, but might be a good place to start.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Daily News Tribune
Author: Richard M. Evans
Contact: The Daily News Tribune
Copyright: 2008 GateHouse Media, Inc
Website: A Day To Remember: Prohibition Isn't Forever
By the summer of 1932, alcohol prohibition had been enshrined in the Constitution for 12 years, as the 18th Amendment. Alcohol-related crime, violence and poisonings were rampant. Speakeasies flourished in large cities. Annual liquor imports from Canada alone soared from the pre-Prohibition level of around 30,000 imperial gallons to more than a million after 1926, mostly smuggled from offshore mother ships frequented by an armada of smaller vessels making regular distributions to their customers.
Despite widespread grumbling over prohibition, the subject of repeal was barely acknowledged by politicians before 1932, fearing loss of rural and religious support. Even Roosevelt took refuge in a states-rights argument, dodging both a wet and a dry label. After wets managed to insert a solid anti-prohibition plank in the Democratic party platform, however, Roosevelt embraced reform. To the roar of convention delegates, he declared unambiguously in his acceptance speech, "This convention wants repeal. Your candidate wants repeal. And I am confident that the United States of America wants repeal." During the campaign, Roosevelt made one speech denouncing prohibition and the subject didn't need to be brought up again. Hoover remained silently faithful to his base.
Following Roosevelt's landslide, for which many credited the party's repudiation of the 18th Amendment, a strong wind blew at the back of reformers. All Roosevelt had to do was to stay out of the way while a new process for changing the Constitution, brilliantly engineered by volunteer lawyers to bypass state legislatures and put the question directly to voters, steamed ahead at record speed, culminating with the ratification by a constitutional convention in Utah exactly 75 years ago today. The vote was carried on a coast-to-coast radio broadcast; it is said that a national cheer could be heard at 3:52 PM mountain time on Tuesday, December 5, 1933, when Utah joined 36 other states to ratify the 21st Amendment, tipping the 18th into history.
The prohibition facing President Obama is better known as the drug war. Since Richard Nixon declared it in 1973, every president, with the enthusiastic complicity of Congress, has escalated it to the point that America locks up a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country on the planet. Spending for incarceration rivals that for higher education.
As with alcohol, the drug prohibition laws don't stop people from obtaining and using their intoxicant of choice. Twenty million American adults use illicit drugs regularly, and only a small fraction of them are caught. Why a disproportionate share of arrestees are blacks and minorities, when their drug use rate is no different from whites, raises troubling questions about enforcement.
While disaffection for the drug war is widely whispered, publicly questioning its wisdom and efficacy remains taboo-like challenging alcohol prohibition as late as 1930. In 2008, the topic was successfully avoided by both candidates and the media, with one notable exception, namely, Mr. Obama's pledge to call off DEA raids on medical marijuana facilities in California.
With an economy in shambles and two active wars, the last thing President Obama needs is an incendiary issue like drug policy reform. He can, however, use his bully pulpit to promote a badly-needed national discussion, asking some uncomfortable but necessary questions, such as whether it is realistic to think that by continuing to pour vast resources into detection, enforcement, prosecution and punishment, we will ever achieve success in the struggle against illegal drugs, and, when we are "successful," how many more people will be locked up, and at what cost to taxpayers. Last month's landslide victories for medical marijuana in Michigan, and decriminalization in Massachusetts, suggest strongly that when given a secret ballot, voters are open to reform.
Legitimizing debate, and making good on his promise in California, won't solve the nation's drug problem, but might be a good place to start.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Daily News Tribune
Author: Richard M. Evans
Contact: The Daily News Tribune
Copyright: 2008 GateHouse Media, Inc
Website: A Day To Remember: Prohibition Isn't Forever
