Rumors of a shift in drug policy once Obama takes office are swirling about like so much pot smoke. Is there any truth to them?
John Richardson in Esquire magazine cites a few reasons why the pro-marijuana legalization crowd might be cautiously optimistic. Richardson notes that the president-elect said in 2004 that the war on drugs had been "an utter failure" and that America should decriminalize pot.
In addition, some of Obama's biggest financial donors are friends of the legalization movement --- people like George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling. And there is new academic literature making cogent arguments about the policy benefits of legalizing pot. "Dr. Jeffrey Miron of Harvard argues that legalized marijuana would
generate between $10 and $14 billion in savings and taxes every year," Richardson writes, "conclusions endorsed by 300 top economists, including Milton 'Free Market' Friedman himself."
Two weeks ago, as OhMyGov! reported, the Obama team asked the public to vote
on the top problems facing America. The public's No. 1
question was "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the
government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create
millions of new jobs and a billion dollar industry right here in the
U.S.?"
More on Marijuana and the government from OhMyGov!: