William F. Buckley: Legalize Marijuana

One thing that often gets missed in the War on Drugs (besides huge issues like the drastic difference between pot and heroin) is that traditional conservatives often join the left in a) finding the war completely useless but also quite dangerous and financially disastrous and b) that marijuana especially should not be part of the fray.

Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy brings us this snippet from William F. Buckley, long-time voice of conservatism, long-time marijuana user, and long-time advocate for its legalization (Buckley is retiring from his post at National Review):

But the stodgy inertia most politicians feel is up against a creeping reality. It is that marijuana for medical relief is a movement which is attracting voters who are pretty assertive on the subject. Every state ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana has been approved, often by wide margins. Of course we have here collisions of federal and state authority. Federal authority technically supervenes state laws, but federal authority in the matter is being challenged on grounds of medical self-government. It simply isn't so that there are substitutes equally efficacious. Richard Brookhiser, the widely respected author and editor, has written on the subject for The New York Observer. He had a bout of cancer and found relief from chemotherapy only in marijuana — which he consumed, and discarded after the affliction was gone.

The court has told federal enforcers that they are not to impose their way between doctors and their patients, and one bill sitting about in Congress would even deny the use of federal funds for prosecuting medical marijuana use. Critics of reform do make a pretty plausible case when they say that whatever is said about using marijuana only for medical relief masks what the advocates are really after, which is legal marijuana for whoever wants it.

That would be different from the situation today. Today we have illegal marijuana for whoever wants it. An estimated 100 million Americans have smoked marijuana at least once, the great majority, abandoning its use after a few highs.

The entire "Free Weed" (NRO's title) can be found here.