Wednesday, February 11, 2009

New Drug Czar?

No one subject works to gather emails in my Inbox than the subject of our nation's drug policy.  When I write about drug legalization it just seems to piss a whole bunch of you off.  Sorry.  I advocate for the legalization of drugs and I do so without reservation. 

President Obama looks to have selected former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to the position and I think this could lead to a positive direction on drug law enforcement.  Kerlikowske was a joke when it came to leading Seattle's police, but his position on drug enforcement was pretty reasonable.  He followed much of the groundwork laid by former police chief Norm Stamper (Norm appeared in this post last year) who made sure that marijuana possession was demoted to the lowest enforcement priority...lagging far behind jay-walking.  (and if you've ever jay-walked in Seattle you know this to be true)

I don't like having laws that are such nonsense that we don't bother to enforce them.  This tendency in America really erodes the rule of law as a whole, but the Federal Government has victimized so many innocent people due to unreasonable (and unconstitutional) drug laws that a "non-enforcement" policy is a true improvement.

Since many of you can't imagine a non-user advocating for legalization...I'll end this post with my obligatory disclaimer:

I've never taken any drugs in my life without a prescription from a doctor.  Having been around drug users in my life I very actively talk about the lack of wisdom related to so-called casual drug use.

3 comments:

chenchy said...

make it legal and tax it.
Revenue, revenue, revenue.

Anonymous said...

I saw someone just the other day getting the verbal beat down for jay walking. And he was cornered by two bike cops with their fancy helmets, one of those yellow jacketed guys who walk around Seattle streets to promote safety, and two Metro workers (since it was near the bus tunnel). And he was just a normal schmoe probably working at Amazon who was standing up for himself and the crap that was being thrown down on him.

He was probably arrested and jailed for talking back after putting his life in danger by walking across the street after the red hand had just started to blink.

Oh, and tax the hell out of it just like tobacco and liquor...there's still a market.

Gino said...

never a joint,tracy?
not once?