Maia Szalavitz: Obama Drug Czar Pick: No Recovery from War on Drugs?
On paper, Jim Ramstad -- who is rumored to be Obama's choice for drug czar -- looks like the ideal man for the job . He's a recovering alcoholic himself and a Congressman who championed legislation recently passed to provide equal insurance coverage for addictions and other mental illnesses.
To top it off, he's a Republican, giving Obama what looks like a relatively harmless way to make his cabinet more bipartisan. Choosing Ramstad would appear to make a powerful statement about addiction as a medical, not a moral issue.
Unfortunately, Ramstad may be a drug warrior in recovering person's clothing. There is one issue that has consistently separated those who put science and saving lives in front of politics. That is needle exchange programs for addicts to prevent the spread of HIV and other blood borne illnesses.
Even President Clinton now says he was "wrong" when he ignored the recommendations of every scientific and medical organization in the world that has examined the question -- from the AMA to the World Health Organization -- and refused to lift the federal ban on funding.
Needle exchanges have been shown repeatedly to reduce HIV and contrary to the claims of opponents, they help addicts get into treatment.
more@link
-
-
-
-
- pokesmot
- added this
- added November 21, 2008
- flag
-
OH god, lets hope he pushed legalization?
I was hoping to save money Obama would close the drug czars office and the dea.-
-
-
-
- Psychedelic
- 8 months ago
-
-
Close the DEA!?
Why would they ever do that? It gives the Federal Government a hand to pick the citizens pockets with, more so than taxes and regulation ever would.
-
-
-
-
- netstorm2k8
- 8 months ago
-
-
Its not just about addicts, our drug policy contributes to the corruption and 6,500+ death toll in Mexico.
We will never have a secure border, and can never rid our police and public servants from corruption with this War on Drugs because there is so much money involved.
Lets stop allowing our money to flow south into the hands of the drug cartels and their political puppets by legalizing and taxing all drugs.
Only then will the drug vendors make sure they sell to adults by requiring an ID, or face losing their dealers license.
-
Based on who Obama's been appointing, I can't say I am surprised. This is going to suck and I don't even do drugs.
-
-
-
-
- animalia_libero
- 8 months ago
-
-
Funny, his VP pick is also a hardcore drug warrior AND is a known alcoholic... oh the hypocrisy!!
When will our government pull its head out of its ass... time will tell....
-
Articles like this have helped to confirm my belief that absurdity is not restricted to the “right.” Of course Obama is going to let the war on drugs continue unabated. Change is not a blanket assertion that Obama voters can apply to every issue.
-
Seems to me the libertarians on the right have got the right idea as far as civil liberties go... Republican and Democrat moderates have a fetish for big beurocracy...how will we replace the jobs lost in the DEA when we legalize drugs? Those jobs carried over from Alcohol prohibition with Anslinger
-
If these police do real police work there is lots of work, that may be a little harder than waiting on snitches.
-
I want to know if Obama thinks it would have been better had he been busted and imprisoned when he was doing coke.
-
You know the answer to that if ya ever been to prison, lol.
-
I sure have and I sure do but does Obama know the answer?
