Spending Priorities

The economic stimulus bill will be stimulating the drug war, too. There's more than $3 billion in there for law enforcement, and much of that is destined for enforcing drug prohibition.

With a budget crisis and a change in New York leadership, a politically perfect storm for reform of the state's draconian drug laws seems to be brewing. With the Rockefeller drug laws finally be repealed, after 35 years?

On the campaign trail, President Obama pledged repeatedly to end the DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. The DEA hit four more in the LA area Tuesday, and the administration responded in the media Wednesday night.

The House passed the economic stimulus bill Wednesday, including $3 billion for Byrne grants and $1 billion for COPS. But as the bill heads to the Senate, more than a dozen national organizations are calling for the funding to be cut -- and replaced by programs that will actually do some good.

As governors and legislators ponder deflated budgets at statehouses around the country, opportunities are emerging to move forward on long-stalled prison, sentencing, and drug reform issues.

In one of the few actions that won it kudos from drug reformers and civil rights groups, the Bush administration tried for years to zero out the Byrne grant program, which funds multi-jurisdictional anti-drug task forces. Now, as part of the economic stimulus bill, Congress wants to give it more money than ever.

Americans can rest secure in the knowledge that our country maintains its role as the world's leading jailer. According to a new Bureau of Justice Statistics report, we have an all-time record 2.3 million people behind bars, and that includes more than half a million drug offenders.

Suffering a budgetary hangover after years of "tough on crime" and mandatory minimum sentencing policies, the Pennsylvania Senate voted last week to divert nonviolent drug offenders to treatment, among other reforms. The House is expected to pass the bill soon.

Who profits from drug prohibition? With this article we begin our occasional series on Vested Interests of Prohibition, and we begin with a law enforcement establishment grown fat off drug war bounty.

An initiative that would decriminalize marijuana possession in Massachusetts has passed a number of hurdles and appears to be headed for the November ballot, where the prospects are good.