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The Republican House and Drug Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [FEATURE]

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #658)
Politics & Advocacy

Last week, a resurgent Republican Party retook control of the US House of Representatives, giving the Democrats a drubbing the likes of which has not been seen for decades. The Democrats lost 61 seats, seeing their side sink to 189 seats to the Republicans' 240. They needed 218 to take over again.

The change in control of the House has some serious drug policy implications. There's bad news, but maybe also some good news.

Reform measures passed in the current Congress, such as repealing the bans on federal funding of needle exchange programs and implementation of the Washington, DC, medical marijuana program, could see attempts to roll them back. And pending reforms efforts, such as the battle to repeal the HEA student loan provision, are probably dead. Reform friendly Democratic committee chairs, who wield considerable power, have been replaced by hostile Republicans.

But the incoming Republicans made slashing the deficit and cutting the federal budget a winning campaign issue for themselves, and will be looking for programs they can cut or eliminate. That could open the door to hacking away at programs that support the ongoing prosecution of the drug war, but it could also open the door for cuts in prevention and treatment programs.

As the Chronicle noted here earlier this week, it's not just Tea Party types who want to wield the budget ax. The mainstream conservative Heritage Foundation issued a report just before election day laying out a whopping $434 billion in federal budget cuts, including eliminating the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the drug task force-funding Justice Assistance Grant (JAG, formerly the Byrne grant program) program, and the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities state grant program.

"Budgetary issues is where I'm most optimistic," said Bill Piper, veteran national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Given the fiscal climate, there could be real cuts in the federal budget. Next year is probably an unprecedented opportunity to de-fund the federal drug war. These new Republicans are a different breed—anti-government, anti-spending, pro-states' rights, and some are proven to be prone to bucking the leadership. If the Republican leadership votes to preserve the drug war, they may rebel," he said.

"We can go after the Byrne grant program," Piper enthused. "That's a very important deal. If we can cut off drug war funding to the states, the states won't be able to afford their punitive policies anymore. During the recession in the Bush administration, when the administration was cutting money to the states, a lot of states passed reform measures because they couldn't afford to lock people up. This time, the federal government has been bailing out state criminal justice systems, but if we can cut or eliminate Byrne grants, the states won't have money for their drug task forces and imprisoning people. Then they will have to consider reforms like cutting sentences and making marijuana possession an infraction."

"Sentencing reform on budgetary grounds is possible," said Kara Gotsch, director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project. "From our perspective, that is a way to reduce government spending. If you want to reduce drug war spending, you reduce costs by investing in prevention and substance abuse programs. That will be part of our talking points, but the reality is, to be successful they're going to have to be bipartisan."

Eric Sterling, former House Judiciary Committee counsel and current head of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation was less sanguine than either Piper or Gotsch about the urge to cut the deficit leading to progress in drug reform. "The prospect of saving money leading to criminal justice and drug policy reform is remote," said Sterling. "In state legislatures where they have to balance the budget, everyone recognizes what has to happen. But in Congress, they know there is still going to be a deficit."

Sterling also questioned just how different the Republican freshman class will be from traditional Republicans. "That's a big question mark," he said. "They are younger and bring with them different experiences about drug policy or marijuana in particular, but most of these men and women won by using traditional themes that most incumbent Republicans used, too. I think for them, cracking down on drugs and crime will have more value than trying to save money by funding diversion or correctional programs that aren't about harsh punishment."

But Piper remained upbeat. "Next year is probably an unprecedented opportunity for the movement to defund the drug war. The stars are aligning. A lot of tax groups are already on record for cutting some of these programs," he noted. "Given the fiscal climate, we could see considerable cuts in the federal budget. The type of Republicans coming into office, as well as Obama's own need to show he can practice fiscal discipline, means a real chance to cut or eliminate some of those programs," he said. "The down side is that funding for prevention and treatment is likely to come under fire, too."

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) -- no friend of drug reform.
While budget battles will be fought in appropriations committees, criminal justice issues are a different matter. One of the most striking changes  comes in the House Judiciary Committee, where pro-drug reform Democrats like chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) are being replaced by the likes of Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who will head the Judiciary Committee. Smith, a conservative old school drug warrior, was the only congressman to speak up against passage of the bill to reduce the disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentences.

He also authored a bill this fall that would have made it a federal offense for US citizens to plan to commit acts outside the US that would violate US drug laws. While that bill was allegedly aimed at large drug trafficking organizations, it could have made federal criminals out of college students making plans to visit the coffee shops of Amsterdam. He took to Fox News last month to lambaste the Obama administration as insufficiently tough on marijuana law enforcement, a clip he displays on his web site (scroll over the small video screens; the title will pop up).

"The fact that Rep. Smith is going to be the chair will definitely have an impact," said Gotsch. "He was the only vocal opposition to the crack cocaine sentencing reform, and the fact that he is now going to be chair is discouraging. It indicates that he won't be thoughtful about sentencing reforms for low level drug offenders."

"The Democratic committee chairs were good on drug policy and unlikely to advance bad drug war bills," said Piper. "Now, with Conyers and Scott gone and Lamar Smith in charge, we can expect stuff like Smith's foreign drug conspiracy bill to come out of that committee."

"You couldn’t find bigger champions for reform than Scott and Conyers," said Gotsch. "We won't have them as chairs now; that's probably the biggest disappointment to our community."

"Smith has been quite out there in his attacks over the drug issue," said Sterling. "My hunch is that we will take advantage of the political attractiveness of the drug issue to try to have both oversight hearings and legislation that would be embarrassing to Democrats."

And don't expect too much from the Democrats, either, he added. "The Democratic caucus is going to be more reluctant to deal with the drug issue in a progressive way than it has been," said Sterling. "They see it as a distraction from the heart of the message they need to bring to retake power in 2012."

With people like Smith holding key House committee positions, the drug reform agenda is likely to stall in the next Congress. Instead, reformers will be fighting to avoid reversing earlier gains.

"In terms of passing good things, there probably wasn’t a lot more that was going to happen with Democrats before 2012," said Piper. "The important low hanging fruit of overturning the syringe ban, the DC medical marijuana ban, and the crack sentencing bill had already gotten through. We might have been able to achieve repeal of the HEA drug provision, but probably not now."

The drug reform movement's job now will be not only blocking bad legislation, but also fighting to prevent a rollback of drug reform victories in the current Congress, such as the repeal of the bans on syringe exchange funding and implementing the Washington, DC, medical marijuana law, said Piper. 

"They're unlikely to go backwards on crack, but the syringe ban and the DC medical marijuana ban were both repealed with some, but not a lot, of Republican support," he said. "The syringe ban repeal barely passed, and that was in a Congress dominated by Democrats. Will they try to restore the syringe funding ban and overturn DC's medical marijuana program? That's our big fear. Hopefully, we can scrape up enough votes to defeat in the House, or stop it on the Senate side," he said.

Piper also dared to dream of an emerging Republican anti-drug war caucus. "We don't know who these new Republicans all are, but some have probably been influenced by Ron Paul (R-TX)," he said. "If only 10 of them stand up against the drug war, that's a huge opportunity to raise hell in the Republican caucus. Almost a third of Republican voters want to legalize marijuana, and that's an opportunity for us, too. Maybe there will be Republicans we can work with and create a truly bipartisan anti-drug war coalition in Congress. That's a foothold."

For Piper, the future looks stormy and cloudy, but "the silver lining is in appropriations fights and opportunities to organize an anti-drug war movement in the Republican caucus. We just have to play defense on a bunch of stuff," he said. 

"The activist community is going to have to figure out what the recipe for our lemonade is," advised Sterling. "That requires first a redoubled effort at organizing, using themes such as the wise stewardship of the scarce resources we have, and what works and what is effective," he said.

"It also requires mobilizing people not involved in this issue before, whether it's the business community or people who see their rice bowls been broken by the Republican approach," Sterling continued. "Teachers, nurses, people asking how come the part of the public work force this is protected is the police and the police guards. Drug policy reform activists have to think about what are the alliances they can make in this time of public resource scarcity."

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Anon9 (not verified)

"But the incoming Republicans made slashing the deficit and cutting the federal budget a winning campaign issue for themselves, and will be looking for programs they can cut or eliminate. That could open the door to hacking away at programs that support the ongoing prosecution of the drug war, but it could also open the door for cuts in prevention and treatment programs."

I've seen far more chemical dependency counselors speak out against Prop 19 than support it.  The reason they gave was that they were concerned very little of the tax revenue from the marijuana industry would go to drug treatment providers.  Whether the person needs it or not, some states require persons arrested for marijuana possession to attend treatment (that's why the vast majority of marijuana users in treatment are men).  However, in my state, if there is no treatment facility within a reasonable distance, then the treatment mandate is waived.  Treatment is seen more as politically correct way to divert people from more costly jail.  Prohibitionists, like Calvina Fay, often use these artificial treatment rates as reason to keep marijuana illegal or else you might see a lot more taxpayer money to spent on our "overburdened treatment system."  I would like to see broad coalition of faith-based groups and businesses like Bishop Ron Allen's International Faith Based Coalition, the Arizona Cardinals and members of the California Chamber of Commerce to put their money where their mouth is and step up to the plate to keep these "treatment and prevention" centers alive.  Let these establishments go before their communities to prove their worth instead of the federal government.  Above all, lets hear testimony from the clients!

Wed, 11/10/2010 - 12:43pm Permalink

     Mr. Boehner promises that the new Republican House will work on jobs and
spending cuts and will do what the American people want.  I will believe it when
they pass a bill ending the prohibition of marijuana.
   The Democrats held a internet town hall meeting and the number one item was
to end marijuana prohibition.  So far the Democrats haven't listened.  The
Republicans set up a web site asking what Republicans should do if they are
returned to power.  Here again the number one suggestion was to end marijuana
prohibition.
   Ending the onerous and failed war on marijuana will create a new source of
revenue that could be used for a number of things like maybe paying down the
deficit.  It would put tens of thousands of people to work, (more than 20,000
jobs have been created by the medical marijuana industry in California alone),
and would send a wave of economic activity coursing through the country.  There
are no justifiable reasons for continuing prohibition.
   So, if the new Republican House wants to prove it is listening to the
American people, then it must move to end marijuana prohibition.  Otherwise the
Republicans are as full of baloney as the guys they replaced.  I will believe
them when I see the end of prohibition. 

    

Thu, 11/11/2010 - 2:12pm Permalink
Annapurna1 (not verified)

repugs only care about deficits when their not being spent on prisons and military...

a series of harsh and draconian anti-drug bills has been stalled in house committees for years...if we get extremely lucky and the repugs will be too busy with the anti-obama witch hunt to bother with them...otherwise they will sail through congress...

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 1:54pm Permalink
sicntired (not verified)

We found out within a few weeks just what the difference is between a centrist party as opposed to a right wing evangelical government.A very successful heroin maintenance program(NAOMI)was taken from a position of expanding its objectives and it's numbers to being shut down.All efforts to restart the program or to substitute it with something else have met with a total lack of support or funding.The safe injection site has been in court from the day Harper took power and even though his meddling led to a shut down of the federal drug laws he has once again taken the site back to once again justify it's existence.Their bill S-10 is a draft of some of the worst of the Amerikan justice system,even including a promise of 6 billion dollars to cover the added funds the bill will add to prison costs.If you think these people will take costs into consideration and make drug enforcement more difficult you will be every bit as sorry as we are.The disaster that is the war on drugs and drug prohibition means nothing to these people.They see things in black and white and are,unfortunately,a superstitious lot who fear that which they do not understand.As anyone who's listened to Sarah Palin knows,that covers a whole lot of territory.

Fri, 11/19/2010 - 1:19am Permalink
Ned (not verified)

This Congress will seek to further protect the interests of traditional status quo corporations and the very rich. Their budget cutting efforts will focus on regulating agencies and social programs while preserving at all costs the interests of longtime solid and reliable constituencies like defense contractors, fossil fuel industries, law enforcement unions etc. 

I expect ZERO positive action from this Congress. Remember the "culture war" is important to preserving the coalition that keeps non-rich social conservatives voting Republican. The Drug War is not only a righteous crusade, it is also a tool for attacking and harassing those pot smoking liberals. The power of the bureaucratic status quo in DC overpowers all other considerations. Drug war as policy is deeply deeply ingrained in DC. The disconnect from how people live in America is practically total. The marijuana economy is a way of life in parts of NorCal. It isn't going anywhere and only deepens, yet in DC they are utterly not cognizant of that reality. 

For anyone in DC to do anything to roll back the drug war, only two things matter. The perception of risk to their own political careers (a cost/benefit analysis) and the potential to seek and receive meaningful chunks of campaign cash from the commercial segment of the special interest. So when politicians feel certain a vote to legalize pot won't turn into an effective attack ad, and pot industry reps and trade groups bring in suitcases full cash or fat checks, that's when things will change.

Sun, 11/21/2010 - 7:43pm Permalink

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