Reflecting on last week’s election results, the New York Times comes to the conclusion that while Democrats and Republicans are still miles apart on most major policy issues, there is a growing consensus on one thing: ending America’s disastrous war on drugs. Ballot measures on Election Day overwhelmingly point toward drug reform, with four states legalizing marijuana and Oregon decriminalizing small amounts of hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, as well as allowing the hallucinogen psilocybin for mental-health treatment. Voters in Washington, D.C., also decriminalized psilocybin, the organic compound in psychedelic mushrooms.
Decriminalization is popular, one Times article suggests, because Americans believe too many people—disproportionately so for people of color—are in jails and prisons on drug charges, and the drug crisis has not gone away. In the wake of the opioid epidemic, which has killed tens of thousands, they also recognize the drug crisis as a public health issue. Columnist Nicholas Kristof goes further in his analysis, saying that while decriminalization is the right direction we should not downplay the threat posed by drugs—or stop talking about their dangers. The goal of the Oregon measure, he points out, is to steer people into treatment to get help for their addictions, and this should be critical to any effort to change drug policy.
And finally, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has come up with a new rationale for legalizing marijuana. While most state leaders say it’s a good idea to boost badly-needed tax revenues, or promote social justice, Lamont argues that legalization would help the state slow the spread of COVID-19 by stopping pot tourism—to nearby New Jersey, which legalized recreational marijuana last week, or to Massachusetts. Legalizing the drug, he added, is one way to keep people closer to home.