Nadelmann on Fox

Fox aired a good interview with Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance on Monday. The only frustrating thing about the clip is the flippant comments at the end of the segment from the anchor and reporter, who are quick to dismiss the notion of a regulated market as “political suicide.” That’s simply not the case — not even for politicians whose constituents watch Fox — because the harms that Nadelmann describes in this segment are becoming increasingly obvious to ordinary Americans.

It’s worth remembering that the end of alcohol prohibition in America literally required passing a constitutional amendment, an extremely formidable hurdle that was thought by pundits of the time to be insurmountable. But the 21st Amendment was ratified nonetheless, and alcohol prohibition was relegated to the dustbin of history. To suggest today that it would be crazy or improbable merely for Congress to pass some sane laws around drug regulation is to forget history and underestimate the potential for change.