The War on Drugs Is Lost: Kurt Schmoke

Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore may be the only sitting politician who advocates, if not outright legalization, reforms in that direction. But even if he is lonely, he is not hopeless on the question of democratic political enlightenment. Mr. Schmoke was first elected mayor in 1987. He is a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar.

SERIOUS problems require serious minds. That may help explain why William F. Buckley Jr. was one of the first public figures to acknowledge that the war on drugs is a failure. I don’t know how Mr. Buckley’s early apostasy about the war on drugs was greeted by his conservative colleagues—although it’s not hard to guess—but I remember the reaction in 1988 to my own call for a national debate on that war. A leading congressional liberal called me the most dangerous man in America. A national magazine referred to me as “a nice young man who had a bright future.” Many of my political supporters encouraged me to drop the subject and stick to potholes.

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Kurt Schmoke

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William F. Buckley Jr.

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Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore may be the only sitting politician who advocates, if not outright legalization, reforms in that direction. But even if he is lonely, he is not hopeless on the question of democratic political enlightenment. Mr. Schmoke was first elected mayor in 1987. He is a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar.

SERIOUS problems require serious minds. That may help explain why William F. Buckley Jr. was one of the first public figures to acknowledge that the war on drugs is a failure. I don’t know how Mr. Buckley’s early apostasy about the war on drugs was greeted by his conservative colleagues—although it’s not hard to guess—but I remember the reaction in 1988 to my own call for a national debate on that war. A leading congressional liberal called me the most dangerous man in America. A national magazine referred to me as “a nice young man who had a bright future.” Many of my political supporters encouraged me to drop the subject and stick to potholes.