If Lowering Penalties for Crack Isn't Controversial, What Is?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson at New America Media notes that last week's major reform of crack cocaine sentencing guidelines failed to meet with much opposition from the right. It's another powerful sign that drug war politics are changing before our eyes.

The silence of House Republicans on the congressional reform measure hardly means that mainstream GOP politicians are ready to become full-blown anti-drug war crusaders. However, the willingness of so many prominent conservatives to publicly voice their doubts about drug laws signals that drug reform is no longer a taboo subject within the GOP. The drug war, in effect, is now a legitimate subject of conservative debate.

The softening of GOP opposition is not entirely due to an epiphany about runaway costs and the threat to liberties. It’s also about politics. Polls show that a sizeable number of voters now think that the drug war has failed or is ineffective. A majority of voters in a growing number of states overwhelmingly back medical marijuana legalization, and even full legalization of marijuana for adults. Drug law reform, then, is clearly an issue that’s back on the nation’s political table. The GOP aims to have a seat at that table.

See, a lot of politicians just stare blankly back at you when you try to explain that the drug war horribly sucks and destroys everything. But when you pull out the poll numbers, suddenly there's a dialogue to be had and progress to be made. Funny how that works.

Of course, fixing federal drug laws is anything but easy. Last week's victory was literally decades in the making, but it nonetheless signals a dramatic departure from the long-standing principle that drug policy reform in Congress is a political impossibility. If we can reform crack laws without igniting any vicious partisan mudslinging, then it should be possible to move forward towards addressing countless other costly and counterproductive drug policies that only Congress can correct.