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Black
Tuesday
for
Drug
Reform
11/8/02
Drug reform movement leaders
and funders must feel like Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt after the shellacking
they took on Tuesday. The same conservative tide that delivered the
Senate to the Republicans also swamped heavily-funded initiatives in three
closely watched states. South Dakota's low-budget initiatives suffered
the same fate, as did the New York Marijuana Reform Party's shoestring
effort to obtain ballot status.
Though a bad day for drug
reformers overall and an occasion for strategic rethinking, Election 2002
was not a total wash, as DC, San Francisco and Massachusetts show.
Reform movement funders,
leaders, and bases alike are beginning the post-mortems on an election
that saw momentum for drug reform come up against a brick wall. The
fact that millions of dollars were spent on failed electoral efforts, while
grassroots groups go begging for funds, is certain to be part of an intense
debate on drug reform strategy -- as well the fact that 19 out of 24 major
initiative campaigns overall have passed over the last six years.
DRCNet will be covering the
analyses of what went right and what went wrong, but this week your correspondent
has been on the road, first to Las Vegas, NV where a hoped for victory
celebration turned into a wake, and then to Anaheim, CA to cover the Marijuana
Policy Project/Students for Sensible Drug Policy conference, today through
Sunday, November 8-10. (Come out to the Hilton Anaheim and register
on site if you can make it!) What follows below is a "just
the facts, ma'am" look at the election results. Expect the Week Online
to delve more deeply into the post-election debate on the movement's direction
in coming issues.
-- END --
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Issue #262, 11/8/02
Editorial: More to This Vote Than Meets the Eye | Black Tuesday for Drug Reform | Arizona Steps Back as Decrim Initiative Loses, Anti-Reform Sentencing Initiative Wins | Legal Pot in Nevada? Not This Year | New York: Pataki Victory Swamps Dems, Golisano, Marijuana Reform Party, Libertarians | Ohio "Treatment Not Jail" Initiative Runs Into Drug War Buzzsaw | No Hemp, No New Rights for Defendants in South Dakota | Wisconsin: Libertarian Thompson Gets Ten Percent | DC Voters Overwhelmingly Approve Treatment Not Jail Initiative | Massachusetts Voters Tell Reps to Support Marijuana Decrim | San Francisco Voters Ask City to Look at Growing Its Own | FAMM Victory: Amendment to Cap Federal Guideline Sentences for Low-Level Drug Offenders is Now Law | Colombian Campaign for Drug Legalization | Anti-Prohibitionists Meet Human Rights Advocates and Political Leaders at Albania Congress of Transnational Radical Party | Newsbrief: Nordic Prohibitionists Beginning Counter-Campaign Supporting UN Drug Conventions | Web Scan: Forbes on Hope Taft, Newsday on Tony Papa, New Scientist on Cannabis, Raich v. Ashcroft Lawsuit Docs | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision, Tulia, Salvia Divinorum | The Reformer's Calendar
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