Do Crockett and Tubbs Like Him?

Cue the Jan Hammer music! We’re getting a new drug czar. He even seems to have some sense. Who’d'a thunk such a creature could exist? You can read all about it at the Washington Post – a good newspaper that’s still printed, a soon-to-be mythical creature itself – with thanks for the tip at The Daily Beast.

The White House said yesterday that it will push for treatment, rather than incarceration, of people arrested for drug-related crimes as it announced the nomination of Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske to oversee the nation’s effort to control illegal drugs.”

It seems Pres. Obama and Vice Pres. Biden are trying to make good on a campaign promise to use drug courts to get first-time offenders into treatment rather than prison. How they mean to pay for it is mysterious, but the rationale is good, and a real departure from the previous administration’s budgetary (though not rhetorical) commitment to cutting off the supply of drugs coming into the US. A great way to cut off supply is, of course, to reduce demand, but the Bush administration was just not that into it. We tell Mexico they need to stop sending their drugs up here, that it’s a supply issue, but when anyone mentions the flood of guns from the US to their violence-ravaged cities, it’s a demand problem. Hmmm.

To be fair to the outgoing Drug Czar, he was busy with other tasks.

The outgoing director, John P. Walters, was the subject of a congressional investigation for his role in announcing federal grants in states where Republican lawmakers confronted tight reelection efforts in 2006. Trade groups for narcotics police officers complained about Walters’s reluctance to meet them to discuss policy and budget issues. Walters had written widely for the Weekly Standard and other publications advocating for stiff prison sentences and ‘coerced treatment.’”

Ahh, the Bush years, meeting political priorities while our neighbor burned. This is just a reminder that the economy’s not the only thing Bush’s avarice and sinister agenda ruined. Let’s hope that the new focus on curbing demand for drugs will include a serious examination of the racial injustice inherent in our drug policies.