GOP Goes Soft on Pot

Support for decriminalizing marijuana seems to be gaining steam within the GOP and generating little opposition even among social conservatives.

Is there an emerging GOP consensus on marijuana reform? Many GOP politicians are silently or openly supportive of efforts to either decriminalize marijuana or make it available through prescription. Such efforts are not new to the conservative movement – National Review published a cover story in the early 1970’s supporting decriminalization and William F. Buckley famously advocated for marijuana legalization. What is new is that GOP support seems to be gaining steam while generating little opposition, even among social conservatives.

Past conservative stalwarts who were known supporters of marijuana reform included William F. Buckley, Milton Friedman and George Schultz. These Republicans have been joined recently by Glenn Beck, N.J. Governor Chris Christie, Congresspersons Ron Paul, Tom McClintock, Dana Rohrabacher and Jeff Flake; California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former N.M. Governor Gary Johnson.  Both Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank’s Republican opponents support marijuana reform.

Last June, socially conservative Sarah Palin even appeared to support decriminalization, appearing on Fox TV’s Freedom Watch and stating “If somebody’s gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in, and try to clean up some of the other problems that we have in society.” This past month California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that decriminalized possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. Scarcely a peep was heard in opposition to the law. This lack of controversy suggests that marijuana decriminalization is moving into the mainstream and this seems to be supported by recent data.  According to a Pew Research Poll taken in March 2010 almost one in four Republicans support outright legalization of marijuana while 61% of us support legalization of “medical marijuana” – that it, legalizing the prescribing of marijuana by physicians to treat medical conditions or side effects of medical treatment. Nationwide a slim majority of all Americans (51%) oppose decriminalization while majorities of Democrats, voters under 35, and Westerners support it.

Arguments in favor of reform were bolstered when the CATO institute released a landmark study in 2009 by author Glenn Greenwald. This study found no harm and substantial public benefits 7 years after Portugal decriminalized drugs. The study found the incidents of certain diseases as well as deaths from drug use were reduced as a result of legalization. Interestingly drug use itself did not increase with drug legalization and in some cases, use slightly declined. Today Portugal has one of the lowest rates of drug usage in the European Community.

There is also the Tea Party itself, which shares many underlying beliefs with libertarian leaning Republicans who argue that the war on marijuana unnecessarily and dangerously increases the size and power of government. Libertarian-leaning Republicans point to the 800,000 Americans who are arrested for marijuana violations each year as an example of wasted government resources to restrict a drug that does little harm to society. These Republicans maintain that anti-marijuana laws divert scarce law enforcement resources and billions of tax dollars from the pursuit of criminal elements while damaging the lives and careers of otherwise law-abiding citizens. As a result, reform advocates argue that anti-marijuana laws themselves are more injurious to society than marijuana itself. These arguments appeal to those in the Tea Party who value greater individual freedom and less government involvement in their lives.

Ironically, the Obama administration has taken a de facto states’ rights approach to medical marijuana laws -- a fundamentally conservative approach.  It will be interesting to see if socially conservative Republicans will buy into the states ’ rights, less government argument for marijuana reform. For the most part social conservatives have remained silent – a sign of the times? Maybe marijuana reform has simply been off the radar of the religious right, or perhaps social conservatives find little to gain in attacking a widely popular drug that many view as relatively benign.

It’s hard to say exactly why there is so little uproar over the growing movement to legalize medical marijuana or to even decriminalize pot. One could argue that politicians are afraid to take sides on an issue where polls show the electorate almost evenly divided. Yet politicians take controversial positions on issues such as abortion and gay marriage regularly and the country is almost equally split on these issues just as they are on marijuana.

Not too long ago any elected official who even hinted that marijuana should be legal under certain circumstances, much less decriminalized, would have been run out of office. The next few years will be an interesting time to watch the changing face of the drug war – and the evolving views of the Republican Party.