colleagues were around today, they would no doubt be astounded at how little we’ve learned. For one thing, the murder rate is back where it was in 1933 and the country is once again awash in corruption. Unfortunately there is no chance Washington would risk empaneling a group like this today because the results are too predictable. Every major scientific inquiry into marijuana since the Indian Hemp Commission of 1894 has found the weed virtually harmless, and while Richard Nixon was able to bury the Shafer report in 1972, that would be hard to pull off in the age of the Internet.^[30]

With the federal government quick-frozen on this issue, the battleground has shifted to the states and this opening is ripe with possibilities. The individual states have always been the testing ground for new ideas. When Prohibition was repealed, it was state legislators who stepped into the breech with a menu of regulatory schemes, and over time the country hammered out a system for controlling alcohol sales that reflected regional concerns.

At this moment, history is repeating itself in California. When the Golden State voted to allow medical use of marijuana, there were hysterical predictions from Washington and Sacramento. But California did not fall into the sea, and after the name-calling subsided, the combatants had to start dealing with reality. The public was then treated to the spectacle of sheriffs, prosecutors, doctors and pot growers sitting down together to hammer out regulations for controlling the distribution of marijuana to legitimate patients.

If California survives this apostasy, other states will follow. Some will enact stringent rules while others may experiment once again with broader decriminalization. When a national consensus finally forms on this issue, it’s almost certain to come down in favor of the sick and dying because they make much more convincing TV commercials than men in suits. At that point, the majority of U.S. citizens will be in opposition to their own government’s policy and something will have to give.