Is the party of ‘Just Say No’ morphing into the party of ‘Just Say Grow’?

...It’s the Nixon-goes-to-China phenomenon: people who might ignore a Democrat talking about legalization will give a fair hearing to a Republican. Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER, the leading marijuana-reform group in Colorado, is no longer surprised when a Republican candidate answers a questionnaire saying he or she favors legalization. He was in the room at the Lincoln Club earlier this year when former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, now running for governor of Colorado on the Constitution Party ticket, told the elderly Republican crowd that even though he might be committing “political suicide,” the time had come to think about legalizing drugs. In a September debate, Tancredo went even further, declaring, “Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.” After lagging in the race for months, the candidate saw his poll numbers jump 10 points this month, bringing him close to his Democratic opponent, who is against legalization. Asked by NEWSWEEK about his official stance, Tancredo was more circumspect than he has been, saying in a statement: “With regard to marijuana, I have no plans to push for its legalization. I simply believe that taking money away from the drug cartels, taking the incentive out of pushing marijuana to kids by imposing the most serious penalties possible on those who do so, focusing our resources on stopping illegal aliens and hard drugs from entering the country, and reducing the corruption now eating away at our law-enforcement establishment has merit and deserves to be debated.”...

Read the entire story at: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/25/the-conservative-case-for-legalizing-pot.html