What a difference a century makes for Trib on controlled substances

It was heartening to read the Trib’s editorial from March 27, 1919, condemning the upcoming start of Prohibition a hundred years ago January 17. The Trib got it right in the 1,100 editorials published during that sorrowful epoch of American history, calling Prohibition “an unwarranted government intrusion into people’s lives…a futile exercise in legislating morality…primarily benefiting bootlegging mobsters and corrupt officials.

But it was dis-heartening to realize the Trib offered not a single editorial opposing the century long demonization of cannabis that produced the same type of societal dysfunction that Prohibition of alcohol produced. Cannabis prohibition ensnared tens of millions of the hundreds of millions of us who have used cannabis while it has been illegal. According to the ACLU, 8.2 million Americans were arrested for minor cannabis violations in this century’s first decade. According to Forbes, minor cannabis arrests rose from 653,000 to 660,000 to 663,000 from 2016 to 2018, even though recreational cannabis became legal in 9 states.

But during the entire 2013 to 2019 Illinois legislative drive to legalize recreational cannabis, the Trib was AWOL from its historical history of libertarian enlightenment on alcohol as a matter of personal choice. In lockstep with their favored governor Bruce Rauner who opined legalizing cannabis ‘wouldn’t be prudent’, the Trib channeled Chicken Little on cannabis rather than legendary Trib publisher Col. McCormick who wrote many of those 1,100 editorials excoriating Prohibition in the name of libertarian freedom.

Of course, once cannabis became legal, the Trib’s news coverage jumped on the cannabis gravy train, giving prominent coverage of legal weed to prevent a single enlightened reader from turning to another source of cannabis coverage.

The Trib Editorial Board might consider a mea culpa editorial on Prohibition. How about “Last century right on alcohol; this century wrong on cannabis”?