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What better way to blow off the debate over legalization than to pretend there's no such thing?

On his first trip outside Washington since assuming his new role, Kerlikowske told a law enforcement crowd Wednesday that marijuana should remain illegal, but public health officials — not police — should lead efforts to reduce illegal drug use.

"Legalization isn't in the president's vocabulary, and it certainly isn't in mine," he told 300 police, federal agents and law enforcement officials. [USA Today]

As supremely lame as it is to find the drug czar sucking up to law enforcement by sneering at the legalization debate, there's something interesting happening here. He says legalization is a foreign concept to him, but he's talking about it onstage days after taking office.Sounds like somebody's feeling the pressure.

Former congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo is the latest prominent republican to come out in favor of ending the drug war:

DENVER -- Admitting that it may be "political suicide" former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said its time to consider legalizing drugs.
…
Tancredo noted that he has never used drugs, but said the war has failed.

"I am convinced that what we are doing is not working," he said.

Tancredo told the group that the country has spent billions of dollars capturing, prosecuting and jailing drug dealers and users, but has little to show for it.

"It is now easier for a kid to get drugs at most schools in America that it is booze," he said. [ABC7]

What a simple and straightforward case he's making. This is the blueprint for how our argument can really begin to gain momentum on the right.

Unfortunately, Tancredo picked up the idea somewhere that it's "political suicide" to say stuff like this and he managed to cram that silliness into the story. Whatever. He'll continue to take more heat for his notoriously extreme position on immigration than for pointing out that the drug war sucks. And for that matter, when concerns about immigration and border security begin translating into support for drug policy reform, we're really getting somewhere.

This is priceless: