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Third parties forming around wedge issues are nothing new on the political landscape. Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential campaign and John Anderson in 1980 prove that those outside the two major parties can impact elections.
The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate estimates that, in states where voters designate their party affiliation, registration in Democratic Party has declined 30% since the 1960s, dropping its ninth consecutive Presidential election year to about 33% of eligible voters. The Republican registration level approximates 24%. On the other hand, registration for third parties or as independents rose for the tenth consecutive presidential year to 17% of those eligible to vote.
Two "third" political parties have platforms that specifically oppose the prohibition of marijuana as medicine: the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.
Item #13 of the Green Party’s 2000 Platform on healthcare specifically opposes arresting anyone for the "cultivation, transportation, distribution or consumption of medicinal marijuana."
The Libertarian Party's statement condemning the War on Drugs lies at #4 on its list of twenty-three Individual Rights. Recently, the party has increased its focus on drug policy, particularly marijuana prohibition. In 2001, during a year-long strategic planning process, the Libertarian National Committee adopted the following goal, "The Libertarian Part will focus resources to achieve the repeal of drug prohibition at the federal level by 2010." Campaigns that reflect this commitment include an ad in the New York Times condemning the Bush Administration’s attempt to tie drugs to terrorism and the online campaign, NoJailForPot. The NoJailForPot.com petition demands that by December 25, 2004, the government stop arresting or jailing anyone for any non-violent activity related to the use, possession, cultivation, transportation, or sale of marijuana.
Fielding more than 1,430 candidates in the 2000 election, many at the local and state level, the Libertarian Party appears to be positioning itself to pick up the public support that Democrats and Republicans are forfeiting by remaining silent on issues like medicinal cannabis. As Curtis Gans, Director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said,
"It is clear that both major parties are losing the allegiance of a sizable portion of the citizenry and that threatens the cohesion of American politics. The Democrats have failed to find a thread of advocacy that unites its ‘New’ Democrat wing with its traditional wing, and the Republicans are perceived as too far right of the American center. And both, in their conduct in the public policy debate and in the stalemate on important issues, are producing increasing voter disdain. If the major parties do not address these problems, the future may well produce either a viable third party challenge or a resumption of the trend of increasing disengagement from the political process."
Unfortunately, a search of the Democratic National Committee’s web site yielded no references to either "marijuana" or "cannabis." This held true for the sites in such large states as Texas, Ohio, and even California, a state where this issue probably receives more public attention than in any other. Republicans also don’t mention marijuana. With their president’s apparent popularity – 80% of Ohioans approve of the job president George Bush is doing as president according to an April 2002 University of Cincinnati Institute for Policy Research study – it is unlikely they will depart from the policy positions, especially ones appealing to their conservative core, which got them to the White House.
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