The Time is Right

(This is blog entry #2 for JN 412.)

In “A Saner Approach on Drug Laws” the New York Times Editorial Board continued a conversation the United States has been having for years about federal and state level drug laws. They brought to attention the Justice Department’s announcement issued last week that urged states to use a “trust but verify” approach to their legalization of marijuana. This is especially newsworthy and timely for several reasons which brings up the first major point in chapter two.

Richard Nixon, U.S. President from 1969-1974

Since Nixon famously declared a “war on drugs”  in America in 1971, the United States has been legislating drugs for decades. Last year, both Washington and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, causing a stir throughout the U.S. How could those states hold these laws and still obey federal laws that prohibit the illegal use of marijuana? This editorial was interesting in that it used timeliness to build upon this huge issue that has amassed so much press over a long period of time. Reading it was like reading through a timeline with the most recent events at the beginning.

Our book has a subheading titled, “The Combo: Look, Backward, Look Ahead” and this editorial does an expert job of accomplishing that. At the very end of the piece they bring up two new bills that are currently going through Congress that deal with drug-related sentencing. The New York Times ventures, “The nation’s costly and misguided conduct of the war on drugs has not been fixed, but a solution is drawing a little closer.” That sentence closes the piece, and manages to look forward and keep readers invested in the outcome of this saga.

I believe this was a very wise topic to write about. It’s a hot topic issue which is constantly bringing in news to the paper. It was not a particularly passionate appeal, but it did have an element of reassurance to those who have been following the decisions Washington and Colorado just made.