cannabisnews.com: Growing Pains!





Growing Pains!
Posted by FoM on May 21, 1999 at 08:40:06 PT
Editorial by Adam J. Smith!
Source: DRC Net
As the issues of drug policy and reform come to the fore in American political debate, the sunlight shines on an incredibly diverse and fast-growing movement.
Differing perspectives, varying agendas and widely disparate tactical imperatives highlight the relationships between the more than 350 groups and organizations who consider themselves, in some respect at least, drug policy reformers. There are groups who are concerned specifically with marijuana laws (and in some cases, specifically with marijuana itself). There are groups that work on sentencing policy, syringe exchange, and broader harm-reduction. There are groups advocating for study into the therapeutic value of psychedelics, for access to adequate medication for chronic pain patients, or against the practice of civil asset forfeiture. There are organizations concerned solely with the impact of the drug war on Latin America and its indigenous peoples, fighting for greater access to methadone, and for the legalization of industrial hemp. And of course, there are a growing number of organizations who advocate for a re-thinking of the entire drug war, to whom all of these issues are simply symptoms of the disease of Prohibition. A reporter called my office this week to ask about this very phenomenon. "Why so many different groups?", he asked. "Is the fragmentation a threat to the cause of reform? What of the disagreements between them?" There is no doubt that the drug policy reform movement is larger and more potent than at any time since the "Wets" rose up and overturned alcohol prohibition. A growing number of successes at the ballot box, a higher profile in the mainstream media and a shift in the way various drug policy issues are being addressed at the national level all speak to the progress that is being made. "The growing number of groups working in reform," I told the reporter, "is most certainly a product of the rise of these issues to national prominence." A good thing, all in all, though certainly there are growing pains. The majority of those growing pains are simply a matter of the movement's funding not keeping up with its growth. Drug policy reform is not unique among maturing movements in that respect, but certainly, the issue's potency has made it more difficult to raise funds for than, say, cancer research or the symphony. Larger numbers of activists, therefore, have found themselves in fierce competition for limited funding, creating feelings of jealousy and frustration and highlighting disagreements over priorities. The other major internal issue has been about tactics. Should an organization that is fighting for legal syringe exchange, with AIDS spreading like wildfire through poor communities and thousands of lives on the line, feel obliged to put its weight behind broader reforms, even if they agree wholeheartedly with these, at the risk of alienating political allies who have not yet come around on these other issues? And what of the marijuana rallies? 50,000 people coming together on the Boston Commons to hear speeches, listen to music and partake in the civil disobedience of lighting up in public is a powerful sight and an empowering experience. But what of the negative repercussions? The stereotyping of reformers as users, potentially frightening away non-using supporters who will be necessary in the coming political battles? What of the adolescents who will undoubtedly be present, and the impact of their red-eyed, droopy-lidded pictures in the newspapers? What impact do those pictures have on the work of other reformers who are working hard to bring new coalitions to the table in the name of reform? And yet, marijuana is the single most used illicit substance, with over 70 million Americans admitting to having tried it at least once. Don't its users, both regular and occasional, comprise the largest segment of those put at risk by punitive prohibition? And what gives anyone the right to question them for publicly displaying their outrage, as the government seeks to take their freedom, their homes, their property and even their families by force, while users of licit drugs such as tobacco and alcohol -- who undoubtedly do more damage both to themselves and to others -- are afforded all of the rights of other Americans? The drug policy reform movement stands at an interesting precipice. Ready to step into the fight as a legitimate and mainstream issue on the American political scene, it is dogged by issues both standard for any growing movement and unique unto itself. The funding will come, and though not every organization will benefit, those who are having the most impact will generally be supported. The stigmatization of the issue, borne of decades of government propaganda as well as of a concerted effort by many in power to label any reform effort as "pro-drug," is also beginning to fade. What will not change is the wide array of issues subsumed under the rubric of drug policy, and the widely disparate constituencies that these issues represent. But while disagreement over tactics and priorities are likely to continue, the fact is that nearly everyone who comes to the issue of drug policy -- whether through the prism of AIDS or incarceration or asset forfeiture or marijuana -- soon discovers that the problem is the drug war, and the very paradigm within which our nation has chosen to deal with substances, the rights of free people to use them, and the consequences of their abuse. In the end, then, the movement, such as it is, is headed in the right direction. We are reaching larger and larger segments of the population through various, interconnected issues by the use of tactics of all kinds, some inarguably more effective than others. At some point in the not-too-distant future, the melding will occur. Whether it will be the result of a single, unifying event, or the rise of a charismatic and nationally recognized leader, or simply by the process of a national realization, over time, that we must find a more rational way to deal with drugs -- both licit and illicit. It is coming. The rapid growth and burgeoning diversity of the people and organizations who are advocating for reform is testimony to its inevitability. 
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