Ethan Nadelmann: The Real Drug Czar

[MAPSbryce]

Ethan Nadelmann: The Real Drug Czar

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone

06/06/2013

The driving force for the legalization of marijuana in America – a frenetic, whip-smart son of a rabbi who can barely tell indica from sativa – has just entered enemy territory. Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, is here in California's crucible of conservatism, Orange County, to talk about the failure of the War on Drugs and why the government should leave pot smokers alone. As a grizzled ex-DEA agent glares at him from the audience of a lecture hall on the campus of U.C. Irvine, it's clear that this crowd has not gathered to celebrate cannabis culture. And that's just the way Nadelmann likes it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/ethan-nadelmann-the-real-drug-czar-20130606

 

[slimvictor]

Excellent article! Thank you for posting it.

Some quotes:

For more than two decades, Nadelmann has built a broad-based movement for reform on the strength of a strategic insight that's both simple and profound: The fight against repressive drug laws isn't about championing the rights of drug users – even of a substance as popular as marijuana. It's about fighting against federal overreach and the needless human toll of drug prohibition.

I don't see why it can't be about all of that.
I definitely feel that my rights are being trampled.

"He is the single most influential policy entrepreneur on any domestic issue," says John DiIulio, a longtime drug warrior and tough-on-crime academic who has recently come around to Nadelmann's side on marijuana policy. "He wore me down," DiIulio says. "What can I say?"

This is just awesome. Full respect to anyone who can do (and does) this.

he is hardly ready to take a victory lap. "Do not assume this is in the bag," he warns. "Marijuana is not gonna legalize itself."

Agreed. Though the tide is turning, we must not get complacent.

To Nadelmann, any rational examination of the evidence supported treating drug abuse as a public-health crisis. But the political response was driven entirely by law enforcement and incarceration. "Something was fundamentally wrong," he says. The moral disparagement of drug users alarmed him: "It was like McCarthyism through the drug war."

Yes. So right on.

Keeping his personal rage against "the absurdity of the drug war" to himself, Nadelmann quickly established himself as a top young expert in the field, lining up a professorship at Princeton, just as the drug war was reaching a fever pitch. In 1987, he received an invitation to speak at a conference on interdiction at the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he would share the dais with top brass from the DEA, the FBI and the State Department. And, in a defining act of chutzpah, he chose this moment to out his true beliefs.

That is so cool I think I just soiled my pants. This guy is a hero.

"People want the tax revenue, and they want the cops to focus on real crime. Those are the two winning arguments." But he also knows that changing public opinion isn't nearly enough. Medical marijuana enjoys 85 percent support nationwide, yet it has zero champions in the Senate.

Absolutely! Those are the 2 winning arguments.
And it is sad, but public opinion doesn't do too much in changing policy. Unless it is linked to the threat of the public not supporting a politician (or the promise of supporting one).

"The only way forward," he says, "is to go state by state until Congress and the White House cry uncle."

Probably so. It seems to be working so far, although we will see how Obama responds. And the next president may be even more conservative.

He worries that the common interests of state regulators and pot profiteers could conspire to create Big Marijuana – a concentrated industry with just a few large-scale growers that are easier for state authorities to monitor and regulate. That would be a bad outcome for his agenda, he believes; mass marketing and public health don't mix. Ironically, Nadelmann says, the Obama administration's evident determination to crack down on industrial-scale marijuana could be a saving grace. "Give me my choice – I want the microbrewery or vineyard model," he says. "I'm not fighting for the Marlboro-ization of marijuana."

I am with him on this as well.
Homegrown, organic cannabis is what I would hope to get out of this.