Steve Chapman: Why Bad Policies Are Their Own Worst Enemy

Newspaper editorials rarely make news—I’ve been
writing them for a long time, and, believe me, I know—but one did
the other day, when The New York Times came out
for legalization of marijuana. It was an agreeable development for
anyone who, like me, believes in letting people live their own
lives, even if they do it badly. But its significance is much
bigger than that.

The Times‘ new policy
highlights how much opinion on the issue has shifted on the legal
sale and use of cannabis. Some 58 percent of Americans now favor
it—compared to 34 percent in 2003. Two states, Washington and
Colorado, have done it. The issue will go to the voters in Oregon
and Alaska in November.

But this national shift is not heartening merely because it
promises to reverse a policy that has been an extravagant failure.
More important, it confirms that in the realm of government,
Americans have the capacity to recognize mistakes and stop making
them. Too many people know too much about pot to go on mindlessly
banning it, writes Steve Chapman.

Bad policies, it turns out, are their own worst enemy. This is
often hard to believe while those policies are in effect. The drug
war began in the 1960s and isn’t over yet. But experience is an
unsurpassed instructor, according to Chapman.

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