Drugs had a rough year. Amy Winehouse alone makes them nervous about coming back at all in 2009. From Obama's cigarettes to Ron Paul's dopes, here's your magic carpet ride through the last annum. And, each year in this post, we make a few predictions for the next. Last December, for instance, we predicted a victory for marijuana decriminalization in Massachusetts—cradle of the revolution and gay marriage. Indeed, voters made possession of an ounce of pot punishable by a mere $100 fine—giving pot smokers a sense of impunity. In darker news, last year we foresaw a bloodbath across Mexico as cartels scrambled for the upper hand over paramilitary forces funded by the United States. As of December 5, it was Mexico’s most murderous year on record, with 4,300 assassinations—including many decapitations—at the hands of cartel goons. What else can we see in the rear-view mirror before we get hammered on New Year’s Eve?

The Epidemic That Wasn’t: Lawmakers and reporters were convinced that salvia divinorum—an herb that, when smoked, packs the equivalent of being donkey-kicked in the face—was the next teen scourge. "I've seen the argument to legalize marijuana. It is a gateway drug, like salvia could be a gateway drug," said Illinois State Rep. Dennis Reboletti said. "We decided to move forward rather than waiting for someone to be killed because of it." A bill banning salvia passed in Illinois this year, and media outlets speculated that smoking the herb—again, about as fun as tossing your arm into a wood chipper—would become as popular as pot. But alas, the impending eruption of salvia deaths proved unfounded and the fear that gripped state capitols seems to have waned with few bills actually passing. It's still legal to have a bad salvia trip in most states.

Ron Paul’s Dopes: A bunch of liberal suckers, many of them techies, were taken for a ride on Republican Ron Paul’s absurd blimp. When confronted with his racist ramblings of past and right-wing assholery, the Borg-for-Paul crowd sputtered about their prophet’s sensible drug policy. True, a sensible drug policy would be nice—but get a grip, people, it’s not worth having a douche-nozzle for a president. Not that he ever had a chance.

Heath Ledger: He pulled the ultimate I’m-an-idiot maneuver by taking too many downers and dying in a Manhattan flat. That’s so gay, cowboy.

Amy Winehouse: Lived 366 consecutive days of disaster. It was a Leap Year.

Swiss Bliss: Every junkie’s dream: free heroin from the government. Conservatives in Switzerland abhorred the idea and pushed the experimental program to provide heroin to addicts to a popular vote. Voters thusly ratified the program, with 68 percent of voters supporting the measure. However, it’s not all high in the sky—in the peaceable nation’s 23 heroin-injection sites, users are given only enough dope to cut the cravings but not enough for a rise. Meanwhile, by an almost identical margin of votes, the Swiss slapped down a proposition to legalize marijuana. Bummer.

Pot Busts in Seattle: Free at last? Not yet. In January, the city’s Marijuana Policy Review Panel—on which I served with our City Attorney Tom Carr and nine others—released a report finding that Seattle Police were arresting more black people for marijuana possession than white people. But black people, according to 2005 Census Bureau data, only make up 8.2 percent of the city’s population. And drug-use rates are almost identical between black and white people. This suggests that 1) SPD officers are targeting black people for drug crimes, or 2) black people are engaging in higher priority marijuana possession, such as smoking it in plain view. The report was a product of the city’s Initiative 75, which made marijuana possession the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority in 2003. Overall, arrests for marijuana possession declined for all races after I-75 passed.

Barack Obama Is no Quitter: He tried to quit smoking but failed. He has at least four years of ducking out for puffs in the Rose Garden.

The Obama Suburbs: The suburbs weren't a tide of progress solely in presidential politics. Over in Washington’s 45th District—around Kirkland—State Rep. Roger Goodman ran for reelection and faced a surprise. His Republican challenger, Toby Nixon, used the traditionally more liberal platform of reforming drug policy. However, before Goodman was first elected in 2006, he had run the King County Bar Association’s Drug Policy Project, and his opponent at the time, Jeffrey Possinger, used Goodman’s drug-loving position against him. But as of this year, the GOP had dropped that tack—Dems and Republicans alike pushed for better drug laws on a supportive suburban public. Goodman took home another term.

A Few Predictions: Obama is not going to legalize marijuana. Can we please shut up about this? States will decriminalize marijuana. Now that Massachusetts did it—and we have a chance to watch the sky remain screwed firmly up there—prepare to see similar measures run in Washington state, and the liberal bastions of New England. Booze will become more popular as America tries to submerge its poverty—whiskey will be the favored spirit. Meth will continue to die out and more people popping OxyContin will die off. By the time the numbers are in, pot busts will have hit another record high. Obama will appoint a new Drug Czar, who will have little power, virtually no advocacy influence, and will be strong-armed into dropping the silly anti-drugs ads that proliferated under the Bush Administration. Here in Washington, State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles will introduce a long-overdue bill to protect legal medical marijuana patients from arrest. An overdose prevention bill will be introduced by someone in the state legislature (hopefully someone other than Adam Kline, who has introduced it repeatedly and failed to get traction). In great news, no more shitty pens, Lipitor mugs and Zoloft hats from the pharmaceutical companies.