Want "Change We Can Believe In"?
Well, how's this for starters? From today's Wall Street Journal...
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." [Emphasis added.]
Now, I know the Kossack community has a wide range of opinions on the topic of drugs.
But I think we can all agree on this: a policy that seeks to eliminate drug use by throwing users into jail for years and decades -- most for doing nothing worse than personal consumption of an illicit substance -- is beyond insane. It is an affront to the very concept of personal liberty our nation was founded upon.
Moreover, as our nation's deficit skyrockets into trillion-dollar territory, can we really afford to continue pouring billions into a crusade to stop others from engaging in personal behavior we don't approve of -- especially when that prohibition is fueling outright civil war in our neighbor to the south?
You don't have to like or approve of drugs in any way, shape or form to believe that the drug war is absolutely insane. And, despite my long-held belief that drug policy in this nation would never change... well, it appears it just might.
Kerlikowske won't mark a sea change in U.S. drug policy; he flatly opposes legalization. But he also tells the Journal he believes the drug issue is "a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration."
It isn't a shift to be underestimated, observers say.
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." [Emphasis added.]
Could sanity in drug policy actually be returning to the United States?
We'll see.