This is Fox News on drugs … lots of questions

The title of this post should remind folks of my generation of the all-time classic PSA from the 1980s urging kids to stay off drugs.  And it is inspired by this new series at Fox News, which is headlined “Going to Pot” and which has a variety of linked materials and segments.  The springboard for some of the coverage seems to be the California initiative on this November’s ballot to decriminalize marijuana in our nation’s largest state.  However, many pieces in this Fox News special series are focused particularly on medical marijuana.  In any event, here are some of the notable segments in this Fox News series as of this writing:

• Medical Marijuana Coming to State Near You?
• Effort to Stop Legalizing Medical Marijuana
• Medical cannabis can cost parents in custody disputes; does it endanger kids?
• Going to Pot: The Science Behind Marijuana
• Will Recreational Pot Use Become Legal?

It is not entirely clear from these segments if the folks at Fox News are somewhat sympathetic or mostly cynical about medical and recreational marijuana.  Indeed, though there seems to be a bit of an anti-pot slant to some of these stories, Fox News does arguably live up to its credo of “We report, you decide” in this special series.

As regular readers know, I genuinely believe that the anti-big-government and pro-liberty and pro-state-rights rhetoric that is often heard from most Fox pundits should lead the Fox-friendly folks to be generally supportive of state efforts to permit individuals legal (though regulated) access to their weed of choice.  (We could surely expect that folks at Fox News would be very quick to complain if the Obama Administration starting talking about federal prohibition of tobacco or alcohol.)

But, as has been discussing in this setting before, the usual anti-big-government and pro-liberty rhetoric that comes from folks on the right tends to be dialed down when the issue turns to criminal justice issues like mass incarceration and the war on drugs.  Nevertheless, the very fact that Fox News has this new “Going to Pot” segment perhaps reveals that the usual drug war times they are achanging.

Some related posts on pot policy and politics:

• Should and will California’s voters legalize marijuana in that state this November?
• “Legalizing marijuana not really a dopey idea”
• Might Sarah Palin’s sensible points about pot get Tea Party types to push for sensible drug reforms?
• Thoughtful academic thoughts on ending marijuana prohibitions
• Green tea party: will Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or other professed liberty lovers support ending pot prohibition in California?
• Do “mama grizzlies” have a particular approach to crime and punishment issues?
• NPR’s interesting coverage of “The New Marijuana”
• How can and should we assess the “success” of medical marijuana and pot prohibition reform efforts?