Drugs may have been the biggest winners in the U.S. election.
Iam not the first to notice that on election day in the United States, the major parties had a mixture of disappointments and triumphs, but Americans voting on state- level ballot measures seem to be unified in wanting a break from the War on Drugs. It was no surprise to see the most liberal parts of the U.S. supporting innovative drug policies. Maverick Oregon voted 59 per cent Yes to a voter initiative that will make “personal non-commercial possession” of any controlled substance a violation with a maximum penalty of $ 100. The phrase in quotes is awfully full of wrinkles, but every drug is implicitly included.
Oregon also voted ( 56 per cent Yes) to introduce a psilocybin therapy program. The state’s health authority will be permitted to license service centres and “facilitators” in the hope of allowing psychedelic ( in the trendy parlance, “entheogenic”) plants and fungi to be used to treat depression and other emotional disorders.
Oregon is the first state to legalize psilocybin outright, although a few Western cities have passed ordinances discouraging the police from punishing shroom possession. On election night, the District of Columbia joined them. D.C.'S Initiative 81, which won with a 76 per cent Yes vote, declares that entheogens shall be “among the lowest law enforcement priorities” (although, honestly, that’s probably the case already) and urges prosecutors in the district to lay off lotus-eaters and ayahuasca enthusiasts.
Sure, I hear you saying, but these are the bluest parts of blue America. Yet the march of drug libertarianism is happening at the same pace, just a few paces behind, in the red zone. Arizona, Montana and South Dakota all voted Yes to marijuana legalization Tuesday. And lest this be thought an exclusively Western phenomenon — voter initiative itself being a Western thing — look at Mississippi.
Voters there were given two related ballot questions on marijuana. One, Ballot Measure 1, asked Mississippians generically if they wished to legalize weed for medical purposes. That yielded a 68 per cent Yes vote. The electorate then had to pick between two sub- initiatives, 65 and 65A. Sub- Initiative 65, favoured by medical marijuana advocates, set out a fairly expansive list of approved medical conditions; while 65A, a rearguard alternative added to the ballot by those fearing an avalanche of weed in the state, sought to confine medical marijuana to the terminally ill. This was seen through easily enough: 65 clobbered 65A 74 per cent to 26 per cent.
You can still detect the distinction between the two Americas here. Mississippi is probably still some distance from decriminalizing meth or cocaine possession in the Portlandia manner. But the recent track record of legalization and decriminalization ballot measures is one of assured, Gretzky- like dominance. The citizen’s right to be left alone by the authorities is a vote- winner everywhere. One rather wishes it weren’t just drug debates that were presented to the public with this framing, in a world experiencing an arms race between economic regimentation and various moral or nationalistic kinds.
The naive interpreter of American politics might find D.C.'S ballot measure the most significant of the lot. An American in Rhode Island or Nebraska might ask how it can be that the federal law is still dedicated to the extirpation of drugs while the federal city is accommodating peyote parties. But this, of course, is not how the U. S. works. Everyone accepts, without even wondering at it, that the Democratic candidate for president will receive 14 out of every 15 ballots cast in the district, as Joe Biden has. The U. S. is a magnificently diverse, incomprehensible, uncontrollable country — and it is run, at least conceptually, from a territory whose political culture is more monolithic than almost any business, church or family you can imagine.
OREGON IS THE FIRST STATE TO LEGALIZE PSILOCYBIN OUTRIGHT.