President Bush’s address to the joint houses of congress tonight was eerily reminiscent of my own words above. He talked about how “Al Qaeda is to terrorism what the mafia is to crime” and that we must “cut the funding of terrorists at their source”. Strong words, but I doubt that he has the will, nor that we as a country have the desire, to end the divisive and profitable drug war. The prison industry is too powerful; law enforcement prefers the relatively easy job of busting pot smokers to the more dangerous job of tracking down terrorists; politicians will want to keep the easily-used election rhetoric of the drug war.

Bush said that “we are in a fight for our principles. We should live by them,” and that this is “the fight of all those who believe in plurality, tolerance, and freedom.” It would be strong symbolism and an important strike in the war against terrorism to show this tolerance and this plurality by ending prohibition of marijuana, coca, and opium in the same way that we ended the prohibition of alcohol and tobacco. At the same time that we show support for religious plurality (marijuana, for example, is used by practitioners of a mostly-Black religion, and marijuana prohibition is used to allow law enforcement to crack down on Blacks), for personal freedom, we would also end an easy source of terrorist funding.

“Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime.” Like the mafia and alcohol prohibition, modern prohibition not only funds but nurtures and protects terror around the world. If we truly mean the rhetoric about tolerance, freedom, and living by our principles, if we truly want to cut funding to terror, if we truly want to divert our law enforcement might to terrorists, we will end prohibition once and for all.