For all President
Bush's talk of "compassionate conservatism" things are certainly not looking
very compassionate on the law enforcement front. After appointing Ashcroft as
Attorney General Bush has announced another ferocious law & order type to be
the new "Drug Czar". Mentored by man of virtue
Bill Bennett, first at the Department of Education and then as Bennett's
right-hand man during his
tenure as drug czar, the 49-year-old John Walters
is almost a caricature of a drug warrior.
The reason for the increase in drug use in the 1990s was
"a failure in federal policy," Walters testified, strangely accusing the
Clintonites of "de facto legalization" for failing to stop all drugs from
entering US borders. A very strange accusation since Clinton spent more on
the drug war in his first 18 months in office than former presidents Reagan and
Bush in their combined 12 years in power and tallied record numbers of drug
arrests in his 8 years in office.
Walters vigorously supports increased marijuana arrests,
leaving alone the crack vs. powder cocaine sentencing disparities, and
increasing "fly & die" interdiction programs like the one that produced the
shoot-down in Peru recently. Walters does not support eliminating mandatory drug
sentences and recently published an article in the American Spectator entitled:
"Drug Wars: Just Say No... To Treatment Without Law Enforcement" . He has spent
much time debunking, albeit not very well, what he calls the three biggest urban
myths of today. These, he claims, are:
(1) we are imprisoning too many
people for merely possessing illegal drugs,
(2) sentences are too long and harsh,
(3) the criminal
justice system is unfairly punishing young black men.
And if he's not enough...
On top of this appointment it was just announced that the
new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will be Asa Hutchinson, a
fervent drug warrior from Arkansas. A graduate of Bob Jones University in
South Carolina in 1972, Mr. Hutchinson was the United States Attorney for the
Western District of Arkansas from 1982 to 1985.
And the likely replacement for FBI director Louis
Freeh is John C. Lawn, who was D.E.A. administrator from July 1985 to
March 1990. It looks as though the drug war will be heating up.
Reformers don't yell loud
enough
How can this happen when it is clear that there is ever
increasing support for drug policy reform? The other day on C-Span, Kevin Zeese
was debating Chris Donesa, Staff Director and Chief Counsel for the Drug Policy
and Human Resources Committee on Government Reform. For an hour the two debated
drug policy and took some dozen phone calls, all but one vehemently opposing the
drug war. When the host commented on this Donsea said that there is a strong
"silent majority" in favor of their prohibition policy and a small but vocal
opposition. He said that their poling data shows that drug policy is
not an issue Americans really care about. That's why they can step
up the war on drugs, providing billions of dollars for prisons, defense
contractors, forced-treatment providers, the military, DEA, FBI, Border Patrol,
Customs, State & Local police, etc, etc.
This could be a major boost to the reform movement.
ReconsiDer has spoken to thousands of "ordinary citizens" in the last year.
Rotarians, Lions, Kiwanians, and the like and we know the drug war is unpopular
and viewed as un-winnable by most people. This coming increase in the drug war
could well be the last spasms of a dying policy. They certainly will make it
easier to focus the nation's attention on this ineffective, evil, damaging and
incredibly stupid drug policy. The rest is up to us.
Nicolas Eyle, executive director
ReconsiDer:
forum on drug policy
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