Being a communist executive in a hippie town, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz expressed his support for the legalization of marijuana last Friday on Pulse Madison 1670 AM. Just the previous week, it was revealed a police officer filed a report detailing how my alder, Mike Verveer (also a fire-breathing radical), was in a room of a local restaurant in which the drug was almost certainly being smoked.
Only in Madison, I guess.
Yes, in few other cities would either the mayor’s statement or the alder’s whereabouts not have done serious political damage. In most of our parochial land, giving the only reasonable opinion as to what should be the legal status of Cannabis sativa, let alone operating within a 10-foot radius of its consumption, would qualify as political masochism.
But even here in hippie-dom, having what should be a banal position on drug use still requires the most pathetic of apologies. Mayor Dave had to clean up the edges of his remarks by stating this was just his personal opinion, and he has no policy proposals that would affect marijuana’s criminalization. Meanwhile, poor Alder Verveer gave the excuse that he was recovering from the flu, which he claims affected his ability to detect the thick cloud of smoke swirling around his head.
“I didn’t see anything,” he said. “I didn’t smell anything. I didn’t use anything.”
While it’s certainly the obligation of any open-minded thinker to consider all the angles on any issue, I confess I can see about as much legitimacy in demonizing weed smoking as the claims of illegal campaigning by the victorious opponents of the new ASM Constitution. It’s a freaking plant that, among other side affects, induces a state of mellowness, introspection and heightened physical sensation. Aside from the minor toll it takes on the lungs, it’s essentially harmless. I therefore feel completely justified in referring to right-wing Dane County Executive candidate Nancy Mistele — who in response recently said she would support drug testing for pro-sanity politicians like Cieslewicz and Verveer — as a veritable square and demagogue.
Because Verveer can’t say it himself, the rest of us will have to say it for him: Whether he was aware of the marijuana or not, whether he used the marijuana or not, he did absolutely nothing wrong.
It’s a disgraceful statement on our society that the voluntary consumption of selected substances invites such viciousness and unreason. Lurking police officers interrupting an individual’s private lifestyle choice in the quiet evening harkens back to what is commonly thought of as a more intolerant American past, including the days of Prohibition and criminalization of homosexuality.
Of course, the hysteria surrounding other drugs — especially “hard drugs,” as they have been colloquially termed — is much worse. Ours is a society in which selling a few grams of white powder to a willing purchaser can earn one decades of prison time. The social stigma of non-marijuana drug use is so great its public users could never think of being treated equally. Drugs and its users have effectively been relegated to the status of “other” — they are something not to be understood or respected, but demonized as something substantively different from the rest of society.
Last year I wrote a column detailing how America’s drug war — something truly unique in the Western world — has little to do with fighting the ever-hyperbolized dangers of a few plants. Our government’s commitment to outlawing drugs is expensive, violent and, of course, impossible to win. The war instead serves as a prime justification for the maintenance and expansion of the police state and military-industrial complex. It keeps people scared of potentially rebellious and oppressed populations — namely people of color and the poor — and justifies their unequal social standing. It’s an essential tool of injustice that bolsters a status quo that is wretched for so many people.
It’s hard to see how anyone who is empathetic and rational would not instinctually feel sympathy for Verveer in his unluckiness and Cieslewicz in his forthrightness. These are people and positions with which students at this university can relate. It should never be forgotten, however, that most of the victims of America’s insane war against drugs are much less visible and endure far worse repercussions.
Kyle Szarzynski ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and Spanish.
