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Is There Something "Liberal" About Improving Our Drug Policy?

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Pete Guither caught this strange quote from deputy drug czar Tom McClellan in an AP story about expanding drug treatment:

McLellan, insisting he’s not "a wild-eyed liberal," said expanding treatment wouldn’t negate the war on drugs.

"Law enforcement is necessary, but it’s not sufficient," he said. 

It's just a stupid and completely unnecessary attempt to label anyone with concerns about our heavy-handed drug policy. The whole concept that only liberals care about this is pathetically simple-minded and dishonest, as anyone who's been watching FOX News lately could tell you. By McClellan's strained logic, his own boss, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, would also be a "wild-eyed liberal" for criticizing the idea of fighting a "war on drugs."

Anyone endeavoring to define the political identity of the drug reform movement is wasting their breath. The idea that our drug policy sucks is far too widespread to be contained within any vague political parameters and I'm quite sure Tom McClellan knows that, even if he conveniently pretends not to.
Permission to Reprint: This article is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license.
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Liberals?

Has anyone noticed that lately it's not just liberals who are proposing reform?
Barney frank is doing his best but we used to have a fair amount of democrats on the side of reform.That dwindled in the 80's when democrats caved to Reagan out of fear of the dreaded "soft on drugs" attacks by republicans and willing participation in the reefer madness mentality by people like Joe Biden and Charlie Rangel.I remember a time when liberals like Andrew Young proudly served on NORML's board of advisers.Now we have people like Hillary Clinton and democrat strategist Karen Finney with their condescending attitudes and snide remarks anytime reform is mentioned.Ron Paul has the most intelligent proposals for reform.

Ron Paul!!

But, who are we going to listen to? A trained, experienced medical professional, with additional self-education in economics and a long time member of Congress, or a bunch of medically uneducated politicians and bureaucrats?! We need the "right tool" (person in this case) "for the right job." Fixing medical costs? Why not ask doctors? The politicians sure as heck don't have a clue!

What's liberal about it?!..

What's liberal about it?!.. It's pretty clear how bad drugs can harm our lives.
acai force max

liberal

LIBERTARIAN,the Gov has no right to say what i can do with my body!

exactly. they don't have to

exactly. they don't have to do that.

maxwell382

Is There Anything "Conservative" About It?

Not if the last forty years are anything to go by.

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