Drug policy is actually a good example of the rightward drift of the party. What was once a central plank in the platform doesn't even rate a full sentence today. You need to prepare yourself for the likelihood that drugs will not even be mentioned in the 2012 platform. See for yourself:

1996:
Before there were drug laws in America, there were no drug problems. And prior to the federal government's declaration of War on Drugs in the 1960s, there were no muggers on the street trying to support a $100-a-day habit, no pushers on high school campuses trying to hook children on drugs, no gangs fighting over monopoly drug territories, no drive-by shootings, no crack babies, no overdose problems. Outside of the 14 years during alcohol Prohibition, nothing like this had ever been seen in America. It took the War on Drugs to make it happen. Democratic politicians like the War on Drugs just as it is -- because they love the power it gives the federal government.Republican politicians want to accelerate the War on Drugs -- by taking away more of your Constitutional liberties, by taking away more of your privacy, by turning America into more of a police state.Harry Browne, the Libertarian candidate, says the War on Drugs is a total failure. Government can't keep drugs out of the country; it can't even keep drugs out of its own prisons. He wants to end the insane War on Drugs -- which will take the criminal profit out of the illicit drug trade and bring peace to our cities once again. On his first day in office, he will pardon everyone who has been convicted of a non-violent federal drug offense -- to empty the federal prisons of the marijuana smokers and others who are no threat to society, and make room for the truly violent criminals and other thugs who escape prison through early releases and plea bargains to return to the streets and terrorize our citizens.

2000:
The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality a war on the American people, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We deplore the suffering that drug misuse has brought about; however, drug prohibition is more dangerous than drugs themselves. The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order and to peace in the world; furthermore, it has provided a rationale by which the power of the state has been expanded to restrict greatly our right to privacy and to be secure in our homes. We specifically condemn the use of "profiles" as sufficient to satisfy the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment, the use of "civil asset forfeiture" to reduce the standard of proof historically borne by government in prosecutions, and the use of military forces for civilian law enforcement as an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids this practice. We call for the repeal of all laws establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs and of "anti-crime" measures restricting individual rights to be secure in our persons, homes, and property; limiting our rights to keep and bear arms; or vote.

2010:
We favor the repeal of all laws creating â??crimesâ? without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.



To my eye, the earlier statements are much more strongly-worded. Substantively, there's a huge difference between repealing laws that create victimless crimes and ending the war on drugs and pardoning every prisoner convicted for using them, as the party once advocated. Just my .02.