It’s been a long time coming, but the decades-long “war on marijuana” appears to finally be winding down. In November, voters in Colorado and Washington passed initiatives to allow for the establishment of legal, state-regulated industries for recreational marijuana and hemp. When asked how the federal government would respond, President Obama replied, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
But it appears that the dominoes will continue to fall. On the federal level, lawmakers in Congress recently introduced a bill to regulate and tax the herb. Four states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — have also introduced similar proposals this year, and more are expected in three other states. Just 10 years ago, a third of Americans favored legalization. Support now hovers around 48 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll. What can explain this recent upswing?
The marijuana policy debate has traditionally been characterized as a culture war between two extreme positions, each defined by an attitude toward marijuana itself. On one side are the marijuana enthusiasts who assert that marijuana is some kind of great gift to mankind. On the other side are those who view marijuana and all drug use as an existential threat to American values that must be stamped out.
The recent upsurge in support for legalization, however, has resulted not from a rise in enthusiasm for pot — the number of tokers has not increased significantly in the past two decades. Rather, growing support has correlated with the rise of a third group, the “pragmatists,” who do not view the marijuana policy issue as a question about the value of marijuana itself. These pragmatists are ambivalent about the drug’s societal worth.
Pragmatists support legalizing marijuana because they like the idea of regulating marijuana the way we do with tobacco and alcohol. Endorsing the regulation of alcohol and tobacco does not equate to an endorsement of the use of these drugs. Similarly, most reasonable people advocate for marijuana regulation not because they like marijuana, but because, given the political and social realities of America, regulation just makes the most sense.
Pragmatists understand there is a substantial portion of the population that will use marijuana regardless of its legal status. So long as that demand exists, there will be a marijuana industry. Pragmatists point out that criminalizing marijuana simply pushes that industry into an illegal market. This black market creates a number of undesirable side effects — violence, crime, poverty, destabilized communities — and diverts law enforcement resources. Legalizing marijuana is the only way to undermine and eradicate the insidious and destructive underground marijuana market.
But from the pragmatist point of view, legalizing marijuana does not imply that we shouldn’t take sensible steps to minimize marijuana use, especially among young people. Hence pragmatists tend to only support legalization proposals that include stringent regulations such as industry-funded education campaigns, age restrictions, punishments for those who sell to minors and rules to prevent marketing to children — tools that have proven useful in bringing teen alcohol and tobacco use to historic lows.
Like most Americans right now, pragmatists are eager to get the economy back on track. They favor marijuana regulation because it’s a common-sense way to increase government revenue, allow for the establishment of new businesses and create jobs. Ending marijuana prohibition will bring an entire illegal industry above ground, generating economic activity and reducing crime at the same time. Of course pragmatists understand that marijuana legalization is not a panacea, but they see it as an obvious component of a more comprehensive plan to kick-start the economy.
Pragmatists also point out that attempts to enforce marijuana prohibition have failed and that continuing to pour tax dollars into an ineffective policy is irrational. National drug surveys consistently indicate that 80 to 90 percent of high school seniors say marijuana is “fairly easy” or “very easy” to buy. Many report knowing someone who deals drugs on school grounds. Pragmatists see that we’re getting no return on our investments as taxpayers. Rather than trying to arrest our way out of the problem and thereby create a chaotic illegal market, pragmatists believe we should use effective drug education and regulatory tools to reduce teen drug access. They believe that law enforcement resources would be better spent tackling serious and violent crimes.
More and more Americans are adopting the pragmatist approach to marijuana policy, because pot prohibition has proven to be wasteful and counter-productive in its goals of reducing crime, violence and marijuana use.
Pragmatists understand that when you’re in a hole, you don’t just keep digging. But they’re showing us that you don’t have to be a fan of pot to support legalizing the stuff. They’re shifting the debate into a realm where practical reason — not one’s attitude toward the drug itself — is the guiding principle. If the recent upsurge in public support is a sign of things to come, the pragmatist approach to marijuana policy will soon become the consensus, replacing what was previously an unproductive and unnecessary culture war.
Jared Moffat ’13 is an organizer for the Coalition for Marijuana Regulation. He can be contacted at jared_moffat@brown.edu.
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