Drug Policy Alliance runs full-page New York Times ad: “Prohibition is Finally Coming to An End”

Tony Papa says:

In a full-page ad in today’s New York Times, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) thanks the citizens of Washington and Colorado for voting to legally regulate and tax marijuana—signaling “the beginning of the end for the costly and unjust war on drugs.” The ad, created by Fenton, also recognizes US Presidents Clinton and Carter, NY Governor Cuomo, President Santos of Colombia, and other political leaders for their efforts to end the war on drugs. The headline: “80 Years After the End of Prohibition, Prohibition is Finally Coming to An End.”

Below is the text of the ad:

80 Years After the End of Prohibition, Prohibition is Finally Coming to an End

Voters in Washington and Colorado made history on Election Day when they voted to legally regulate and tax marijuana. Their votes signaled the beginning of the end for the costly and unjust war on drugs.

Thank you to the citizens of Washington and Colorado.

The Drug Policy Alliance is especially proud of this milestone, as we worked for years to make this historic day happen.

We’d also like to thank: President Bill Clinton for acknowledging the drug war’s futility and failure; President Jimmy Carter and Pat Robertson for saying it’s time to legalize marijuana; Governor Christie for calling the drug war a failure and Governor Cuomo for working to end New York’s racially discriminatory marijuana arrest crusade; Congressmen Ron Paul and Barney Frank for introducing the first bill to end federal marijuana prohibition; Presidents Santos (Colombia), Pérez Molina (Guatemala) and Mujica (Uruguay) for breaking the taboo on alternatives to drug prohibition; and, most of all, our many allies around the world for demanding no more drug war.

We strive for the day when drug policies are no longer motivated by ignorance, fear and prejudice but rather by science, compassion, fiscal prudence and human rights, with education and treatment available for everyone. Help us fight the good fight by making a tax deductible donation.

• [Jake0748]

  As a citizen of WA, who voted – You’re Welcome.   :D

• [blissfulight]

  Pat Robertson is probably like, ‘Oh, shit.’

  • [Michael Langford]

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/us/pat-robertson-backs-legalizing-marijuana.html  No, I think this is a principled stance, not a gaffe.

• [Alissa Mower Clough]

  Their roster of supporters made my head spin. Who would have known  a former Fed chief, Walter Cronkite, and Sting were on the same team? And…Harry Belafonte? Wow.

• [eviladrian]

  Do you think that in some future, pot-smoking utopia, people will look back on our time in the same romanticised way we do on the 1930s?
  Like they’ll just imagine it was just constant drive-bys and police busts with anachronistic remixes of 2010s hit songs playing the whole time?

• [Boundegar]

  I think the victory dance is a bit premature.  Last I heard Obama hadn’t backed off vigorous DEA enforcement against dispensaries that fully comply with state law.

  • [Jake0748]

     Yeah, actually I believe he has.  I think his quote was, “we have bigger fish to fry right now”. 

    • [Rindan]

      The crystal ball says “the future is unclear”.  Obama made some extremely vague noises about them having better things to do.  He also said during his first term that he would stop raiding California and promptly launched more raids than Bush did.  He has certainly made no formal policy statements, and he sure as shit hasn’t rescheduled marijuana… something he could do at anytime with asking for permission from congress.
      When it comes to the war on drugs, Obama is a raging hypocrite. How the fuck that guy sleeps at night knowing that people are having their lives ruined for something that he personally did is beyond me.  If Obama (or George Dubya Bush for that matter) had been caught with the coke and pot that they both partook in during their youths, neither one of those assholes would have been president. Hell, they probably would have been kicked from college.

      Obama is a thousand times better than what the alternative was, but when it comes to drugs, he is a piece of shit hypocritical asshole whose word isn’t worth spit. I’ll believe Obama isn’t a piece of shit when he proves it.

• [C.J. Casey]

  Also, “President” Clinton said no such thing about the drug war… that would be Former President Clinton. I’m not nit-picking, I’m just pointing out that no sitting President has had the cojones to come out against the war on drugs.

• [Steve Baker]

  Free Mark Emery

• [Vincent Maldia]

  if its taxed and legal, marijuana better be subject to the same safety regulations and studies as common medications. wouldnt want future comparisons with thalidomide

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    You mean like we regulate grapefruit juice?