There is good policy. There is bad policy. And, then, there is just pure dumb policy. In the last category I put the so-called "war on drugs" which has accomplished the following: wasted tens of billions of dollars, put a strain on state budgets because of overcrowding of prisons populated by people convicted of drug offenses and fueled drug-related violence in the streets of our cities and towns and in other countries, as we see virtually every day in Mexico. We need to end this dumb policy--and one step towards that goal is to defeat the nomination of Michele Leonhart to head the Drug Enforcement Agency.
The Drug Policy Alliance is leading the campaign to defeat Leonhart. Understand first that Leonhart is a Bush Administration appointee--she is currently the deputy administration of the DEA. Now, being a Bush Administration appointee isn't necessarily a disqualifying quality (ummm...give me a couple of years and I'm sure I can come up with an assistant secretary of something to make that point). But, as the DPA points out, in a postal mailing, Leonhart:
Praised a "super-snitch as an "outstanding testifier," even though U.S. courts repeatedly identified him as a liar and perjurer (The DEA has paid this man $2.2 million over the years)
Wasted $123,000 to charter a private plane to Columbia, despite access to the DEA's fleet of 106 airplanes.
Abused her position by overturning a DEA administrative law judge's ruling to allow medical researchers to grow marijuana for study.
Far more important, however, is the mentality that Leonhart brings to the job: she sees drug use as a criminal matter, not as a health policy question. She will ignore science, will step up harassment and prosecution of physicians who use medical judgment and prescribe marijuana to help patients manage painful diseases and she will use the DEA to keep the propaganda machine alive that keeps a failed policy in place.
What to do? The DPA has a petition up to call for the defeat of Leonhart's nomination. Sign it and pass it around. Call your Senators.
I have long supported the decriminalization of marijuana and will push for that as a U.S. Senator.
This is one of those arenas that immediately comes to mind when I hear the foolish rant about the deficits in our country and that we have no money left and that we now need Commissions to cut Medicare and Medicaid and "entitlements" (a Commission, by the way, that my opponent supports). No, our problem in this country is not the lack of money.
It's our priorities.
It's a $708 billion defense budget. It's the waste of tens of billions of dollars on foolish and immoral wars. It's the lack of a sane, progressive tax system. And, yes, it's the incredible waste of billions of dollars on the "war on drugs"--which flushes money down a rat hole and puts people in prison, rather than uses the money to give the very same people who end up in jail decent-paying jobs.
Defeating the "war on drugs", then, is a much larger statement--it's call to get our priorities straight.
Here is a short video I've done on the topic: