War on Drugs Over?

[stephendare]

Thank God.

Legalize Pot, tax it, and treat everything else.  Im a little tired of having the law enforcement hands in my pocket to purchase their state of the art helicopters and small military deployment stuff.

Maybe the cost of public safety will start getting reasonable again.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting "a war on drugs," a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues.

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."

Gil Kerlikowske, the new White House drug czar, signaled Wednesday his openness to rethinking the government's approach to fighting drug use.
Brendan Smialowski for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Kerlikowske's comments are a signal that the Obama administration is set to follow a more moderate -- and likely more controversial -- stance on the nation's drug problems. Prior administrations talked about pushing treatment and reducing demand while continuing to focus primarily on a tough criminal-justice approach.

The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said.

Already, the administration has called for an end to the disparity in how crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine are dealt with. Critics of the law say it unfairly targeted African-American communities, where crack is more prevalent.

The administration also said federal authorities would no longer raid medical-marijuana dispensaries in the 13 states where voters have made medical marijuana legal. Agents had previously done so under federal law, which doesn't provide for any exceptions to its marijuana prohibition.
Journal Community

    “ That the War on Drugs has been a complete failure is not even a question anymore. ”

â€" David Dimston

During the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama also talked about ending the federal ban on funding for needle-exchange programs, which are used to stem the spread of HIV among intravenous-drug users.

The drug czar doesn't have the power to enforce any of these changes himself, but Mr. Kerlikowske plans to work with Congress and other agencies to alter current policies. He said he hasn't yet focused on U.S. policy toward fighting drug-related crime in other countries.

Mr. Kerlikowske was most recently the police chief in Seattle, a city known for experimenting with drug programs. In 2003, voters there passed an initiative making the enforcement of simple marijuana violations a low priority. The city has long had a needle-exchange program and hosts Hempfest, which draws tens of thousands of hemp and marijuana advocates.

Seattle currently is considering setting up a project that would divert drug defendants to treatment programs.

Mr. Kerlikowske said he opposed the city's 2003 initiative on police priorities. His officers, however, say drug enforcement -- especially for pot crimes -- took a back seat, according to Sgt. Richard O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. One result was an open-air drug market in the downtown business district, Mr. O'Neill said.

"The average rank-and-file officer is saying, 'He can't control two blocks of Seattle, how is he going to control the nation?' " Mr. O'Neill said.

Sen. Tom Coburn, the lone senator to vote against Mr. Kerlikowske, was concerned about the permissive attitude toward marijuana enforcement, a spokesman for the conservative Oklahoma Republican said.

Others said they are pleased by the way Seattle police balanced the available options. "I think he believes there is a place for using the criminal sanctions to address the drug-abuse problem, but he's more open to giving a hard look to solutions that look at the demand side of the equation," said Alison Holcomb, drug-policy director with the Washington state American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr. Kerlikowske said the issue was one of limited police resources, adding that he doesn't support efforts to legalize drugs. He also said he supports needle-exchange programs, calling them "part of a complete public-health model for dealing with addiction."

Mr. Kerlikowske's career began in St. Petersburg, Fla. He recalled one incident as a Florida undercover officer during the 1970s that spurred his thinking that arrests alone wouldn't fix matters.

"While we were sitting there, the guy we're buying from is smoking pot and his toddler comes over and he blows smoke in the toddler's face," Mr. Kerlikowske said. "You go home at night, and you think of your own kids and your own family and you realize" the depth of the problem.

Since then, he has run four police departments, as well as the Justice Department's Office of Community Policing during the Clinton administration.

Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports legalization of medical marijuana, said he is "cautiously optimistic" about Mr. Kerlikowske. "The analogy we have is this is like turning around an ocean liner," he said. "What's important is the damn thing is beginning to turn."

James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest law-enforcement labor organization, said that while he holds Mr. Kerlikowske in high regard, police officers are wary.

"While I don't necessarily disagree with Gil's focus on treatment and demand reduction, I don't want to see it at the expense of law enforcement. People need to understand that when they violate the law there are consequences."

[Shwaz]

Congrat's to forward thinking... finally!

It makes sense to go after & punish the drug dealers vs. the user's imo. It seems to be effective at fighting narcotics availability and demand at the same time. Keep the pusher's off the street and clean up as many addicts as you can is a much better action then locking up everyone, giving them more access to the drugs they're addicted to (as well as new drugs) and draining tax dollars on excessive prison sentences.

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries still seem silly to me. Maybe 1% of customers have actual medical needs and the rest are there with prescriptions for writer's cramp. Call them weed bodega's for all I care though, but it still seems silly. I imagine with the Fed backing off these MMD's we'll see a whole lot more popping up in almost every state.

[urbanlibertarian]

Don't go after the dealers or the users.  Create a legal way for adults to get whatever they want.  That will put the dealers out of business and end almost all drug related violence and corruption.  Taxes from legal sales could cover the cost of rehab and regulation.
The War on Drugs is not over until we stop fighting it.  Winning it without a Soviet style police state is not possible.

[jandar]

Just tax the hell out of pot.
Get caught selling pot without taxes? Ask Al Capone about the IRS.

nuff said.

[CMG22]

I'm with urbanlibertarian--totally.  Although I'll add a caveat:  even if the taxes don't cover the costs of rehab and regulation, it will still be FAR cheaper than this war.  I'll also add that the assumption that all users are addicts is untrue.  A great majority, but not necessarily all users are addicts would be more accurate, based on my observation, only.

[urbanlibertarian]

Unfortunately the new administration apparently wants to change the rhetoric of drug prohibition a lot but change the law and associated policies not so much.  State and local law enforcement have become dependent on federal money, excess military hardware and civil asset forfeiture and that will make changing the status quo politically difficult if not impossible.

[BridgeTroll]

I think the taxation angle is overstated.  Who is really gonna buy guvment weed??  Or weed grown in giant fields by Philip Morris.  I mean cmon... I suppose if desperate you might pull into the liquor/hemp store for a pack of "Uncle Sam Ragweed" but the home growers will still be the point of sale for most.  Pot smoking is about the culture and ritual and of course the buzz.  All three of those are diminished with the purchase of guvment weed.

I will be happy that non violent weed offenders will no longer be arrested but we may create a new class of "marijuana moonshiners" runnin from the revenuers...   

[Doctor_K]

Legalization of marijuana, along with the FairTax?  Man...the problems that'd solve.

[Karl_Pilkington]

this won't make one bit of difference here in Jacksontucky where Rutherford and his troops will still conduct reverse buy bust operations where they sell pot and arrest the buyers for the FELONY charge of purchase of cannabis.  Yep, beware you pot buyers.

[Shwaz]

I agree with Urbanlib too - but it's unrealistic.

[Deuce]

Legalize it, don't criticize it!

[civil42806]

I think the taxation angle is overstated.  Who is really gonna buy guvment weed??  Or weed grown in giant fields by Philip Morris.  I mean cmon... I suppose if desperate you might pull into the liquor/hemp store for a pack of "Uncle Sam Ragweed" but the home growers will still be the point of sale for most.  Pot smoking is about the culture and ritual and of course the buzz.  All three of those are diminished with the purchase of guvment weed.

I will be happy that non violent weed offenders will no longer be arrested but we may create a new class of "marijuana moonshiners" runnin from the revenuers...  

Agree it should be legalized, but BT is right, once its legalized and taxed there will have to be a limit on how much can be home grown, much like the llegal limit on homebrewing.  You don't cheat uncle sam out of his taxes, especially when your trying to pay for "the ones" stimulus package.  Looks like  a job for elliot ness.