Time to Start Talking About Legalization

In the September 28th issue of The Drug War Chronicle there appears a very powerful editorial favoring the legalization of drugs. The piece is by David Borden, the Executive Director of The Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet).

In it he sheds some light on why it has been so difficult, given the reality of total failure to accomplish any positive results, to achieve reform in this area of public policy by relating an anecdote told to him by Arnold Trebach. Borden writes that it, " can be hard to advance this discussion in circles of power. Arnold commented that at least eight people in US officialdom told him they would be glad to meet with him, they appreciated what he was doing, but they preferred not to meet him in their offices. They wanted to meet at one restaurant or another, where they hopefully would not been seen with him and thereby get in political hot water. That was a long time ago, but it is still the situation in many ways today." He also suggests a course of action by asserting that despite the above, "we do advance -- this organization and newsletter are here, for example, and the movement is growing in diversity and experience and size. Now it's time for the leaders to get real -- drug legalization is viable and it's the right thing to do. So stop demonizing it and start talking about it. Because sometimes leadership means actually leading."