The Forces of Prohibition are Last-Gasping

Pick your evil overlord - the Wicked Witch of the West, the Sith Lord, Immortan Joe, [your evil bad-guy here]... and imagine them spitting out their final defense of their evil structures.

"What a world, what a world..."

This is how many thoughtful Americans have perceived the political world for the last few weeks as the Forces of Prohibition circle their wagons for one last go.

Lookie over here: the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), (cinematically flanked by three broad-shouldered shaved-headed grim-faced enforcer types) telling a congressional committee that he has not read studies... unfamiliar with the cannabis research.. (though he seems unfamiliar with that C-word, too) "At what point did we determine that revenue was more important than our kids?” he said.

Perhaps the Red Badge of Courage wasn't required reading in his middle school?

While over there: The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse telling the Boston Globe "When you legalize, you create an industry whose purpose is to make money selling those drugs."

Um... Director, perhaps you've heard of the existing cannabis industry that's estimated at nearly $50 Billion annually in the US? To be clear - no one is creating an industry, we're trying to legalize and regulate it, to provide safety and control and medicine to people in need.

And while these two individuals have specific jobs at the deal-with-it end of the spectrum (drug enforcement, drug abuse) removes them from the conversation about policy.

Meanwhile, Up in Maine: The state legislature had to step in to prevent Maine's prohibitionist governor from completely trampling the voters' expressed desire to legalize cannabis.

These folks are reactive, and what's needed now is a proactive approach to ending prohibition so that medicine can be researched and provided to people in need, and black market drug dealers can be forced out of American playgrounds by sheer economic necessity (we hear there are openings at Starbucks...)

Image Source: Wizard of Oz is owned by Warner Bros.