LEAP on the Hill: Stories from the week of May 15, 2009

You guys have cool little badges: I made a short road trip up to Harrisburg, PA to appear on a TV program. The prohibition crowd was represented by a 35 year police veteran. During the 20 minute debate he caught me a bit off guard, when he said, ‘we need a lot of regulations for these drugs.’ I heartily agreed & said as a starting point for those regulations, we should look at alcohol minus advertising. After the show he admitted that his position was really not that far from mine. He then pointed to my LEAP lapel badge and asked how to get one. I reached in my pocket and gave him one. He smiled broadly and we parted company. While no one was looking: The non-story of the week was made by our new Drug Czar Kerlikowski who declared that the term ‘War on Drugs’ would no longer be used. 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. Thus, while the Inside the Beltway crowd was occupied with Pelosi and the CIA story, after 38 years the term War on Drugs ended. The Sunday talk shows never mentioned the ending of the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral domestic policy since slavery & Jim Crow. And that is fine. Medium step, IMO.