Does this signal an end to the Great Pot Strategy of 2012? The turnout value for turning on was supposed to help Democrats to victory in California when Proposition 19 made the ballot, drawing younger Democrats and libertarians to the polling booth and generating some serious buzz as it sailed to victory. The success of legalization as an electoral strategy would heal the breach between Democrats and libertarians and force Republicans to either back legalization or become increasingly isolated.
Of course, in order for the strategy to spread to other states like weeds through a garden, it had to actually work. Bummer, man:
In a landmark ballot measure that tested the boundaries of the public’s acceptance of pot, California voters decided Tuesday night they’re not ready to legalize marijuana smoking as a leisure activity.
With more than one-fifth of votes counted, Proposition 19 was losing by 56 to 44 percent. The initiative would have allowed adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce of pot and cultivate small amounts of marijuana at home.
The pot initiative – which would have made California the first state to legalize marijuana beyond medical use – drew international attention.
Who harshed the mellow? It was The Man, man — the Democratic Man:
Ultimately, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder weighed in on the campaign, vowing to “vigorously enforce” federal drug laws in California if voters passed the initiative.
“When the U.S. attorney general talked about the conflict with federal law, that gave people pause,” Roger Salazar, spokesman for Public Safety First, the No on 19 campaign, said as returns showed the measure headed to defeat.
There are good arguments on both sides of this debate, although in California it more or less degenerated into sloganeering and silliness, such as the supposed difficulty of determining impairment of drivers (which California has been doing for decades) and the notion that pot would significantly help balance the budget. The real question is whether the cost of prohibition in terms of both dollars and civil rights is worth the amount of success it has provided in keeping marijuana out of the hands of people who want to use it.
Unfortunately, the “pot strategy” made that basic question an afterthought to electoral strategy. In this case, the strategy was obviously not successful. Democrats turned out anyway and voted against the bill. If the strategy would work anywhere, it would only work in liberal-leaning states like California, where Democrats rarely have trouble winning statewide elections anyway. For better or worse, the consensus in the US appears to strongly favor prohibition, so as a lever for partisan gains, legalization referenda don’t seem to be terribly useful.
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