Rep. Engel Introduces Bill to Create Independent Drug Policy Commission

This looks promising:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Eliot L. Engel – the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere – has introduced the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act of 2009, a bill that will create an independent commission to evaluate US policies and programs aimed at reducing illicit drug supply and demand.

"Billions upon billions of US taxpayer dollars have been spent over the years to fight the drug war in Latin America and the Caribbean," says Engel. "In spite of our efforts, since the early 1980s, the number of US lifetime drug users has steadily risen for marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Clearly, the time has come to reexamine our counternarcotics efforts here at home and throughout the Americas." [LAHT]

Great. Let's do that. Let's reexamine the hell out of this. Good idea.

But I can't wait to see who comes forward to oppose the idea of examining our drug policy and trying to make it less bad. Amazingly, there will be people in Congress who come forward to argue that our drug policy is awesome the way it is and we should be proud that so many people are getting killed because that means things are really getting good.

By the way, Rep. Engel who introduced this bill is a strange character who voted the right way on the Hinchey Amendment (to end mmj raids) every single time, but also introduced legislation to ban selling prosthetic penises used to cheat on drug tests.