Jessica Peck Corry, a public policy analyst at the Colorado-based free market-orientated Independence Institute and self-described “soccer mom”, has written an opinion piece in The Denver Post, “One soccer mom’s take on the drug war“, that is very critical of marijuana prohibition because of what she sees as its ineffectiveness and waste of resources that could have been better spent elsewhere.
She cleverly appeals to the self-interest of parents and politicians in support of her argument for a change in the status quo. Her major points, slightly fleshed out, include:
* Since 1998 the office of the Drug Czar has spent $2 billion of taxpayers money on advertising campaigns targeted at parents and kids. In the case of parents who are indifferent to the fate of their kids it will be ineffective, while good parents will talk to their kids anyway. As for the kids themselves, she cited a recent national study that concluded these anti-marijuana ads are in many cases counterproductive. This in turn undermines respect for other, better, laws in the country.
Her solution is for politicians to get past the notion that mothers can only see the decriminalisation or legalisation of marijuana as endorsing its consumption. Coming up with better ways of communicating with parents, in particular mothers - the “decision makers” - in a way they can better relate to, could be a vote-grabber for both the Republicans and Democrats.
But what then of the so-called bad mothers - and fathers - who are indifferent anyway? What will happen to their kids? While Corry would probably respond that things couldn’t get much worse with the current ineffective campaign - and the larger drug war it is a part of - it would have been interesting to see her address this common objection in some detail.
* If the $2 billion had been spent on education instead of ineffective ads this could’ve lightened the load for taxpaying parents as well as needy students. Further, if marijuana was made legal, then tax revenues administered on its sale could also be diverted into college scholarships as well as treatment programs. This could help parents financially in a major way.
Read it all. Via Micah Daigle at the always interesting “DARE Generation Diary“, a project of Students for Sensible Drug Policy:
DARE Generation Diary provides a forum for members of the DARE Generation - those of us who grew up during the escalation of the War on Drugs - to expose how these punitive policies hurt us and to formulate effective strategies for fighting back. We won’t allow this war to be waged in our names any longer!
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