cannabisnews.com: Bush's New Drug Czar?





Bush's New Drug Czar?
Posted by FoM on April 19, 2001 at 21:51:16 PT
By Daniel Forbes
Source: Salon.com
John Walters, a hard-liner who was former drug czar William Bennett's deputy during the first Bush administration, has emerged as the leading candidate to become director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to a knowledgeable drug policy source. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that three reliable sources, including one in the White House, told him on Thursday that Walters was likely to be chosen to head the drug office. The White House declined to comment on the report. 
Walters is a self-proclaimed hawk on drug policy matters who has been strongly critical of the Clinton administration's execution of the drug war. At the ONDCP, he was responsible for developing enforcement policy and coordinating attempts to reduce the supply of banned drugs. The Bennett-Walters drug office was characterized by widespread use of the bully pulpit to issue harsh moral condemnations of users of illegal drugs, little distinction between marijuana and drugs like heroin and cocaine and an emphasis on punishment over rehabilitation. Walters and Bennett also made a decision to stop the longtime practice of representing drug use as a health matter, arguing that doing so made drug users too sympathetic. In his 1996 book on the drug wars, "Up in Smoke," Dan Baum quotes Walters as saying, "The health people say 'no stigma,' and I'm for stigma." Baum writes that Walters "took the position that marijuana, cocaine and heroin 'enslave people' and 'prevent them from being free citizens' in a way that tobacco and alcohol do not." Walters' appointment would end a three-month period during which the ONDCP functioned without a director. The office's former director, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, resigned on Jan. 6. Walters was a coauthor, with Bennett and John DiIulio (who was recently named by President Bush to head the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives), of the 1997 book "Body Count: Moral Poverty and How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs," which warned of a coming wave of "superpredators" and called for longer sentences and more arrests. Walters, who has taught political science at several universities, is president of the conservative group The New Citizenship Project, which advocates an enhanced role for religion in American public life. Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the NORML Foundation, a drug reform organization, said "NORML and myself are very disappointed by this selection. We'd hoped that the Bush administration would turn away from the hyperbolic, table-thumping approach of Walters and his mentor, William Bennett, which was one of the most destructive periods in public policy in the last 30 years. Walters equates moral turpitude with drug use, and I'm afraid he'll increase the harsh rhetoric coming out of the drug office's bully pulpit." St. Pierre added that the selection of hard-liner Walters made it unlikely that a higher percentage of the drug office's $22 billion budget would be spent on treatment and education, as opposed to enforcement and interdiction. "Under Nixon, the ratio was 50-50. Under Clinton, who was extremely hard-line on drug war enforcement although he didn't use the bully pulpit as much as Walters would like, that ratio went up to 75-25." Note: John Walters, a hard-line drug warrior, is the leading candidate to replace Barry McCaffrey. Advocates say he's a throwback to the bad old days of Bill Bennett.About the Writer:Daniel Forbes is a New York freelancer who writes on social policy and the media. Contact: ddanforbes aol.comSource: Salon (US Web)Author: Dan ForbesPublished: April 20, 2001 Copyright: 2001 Salon Website: http://www.salon.com/ Contact: salon salonmagazine.com CannabisNews Articles - Drug Czarhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=drug+czar
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Comment #13 posted by Jeaneous on April 20, 2001 at 15:53:19 PT:
Write
Now is the time to let your representatives know how you feel about any appointment to that office. I'm sure we won't agree with anyone on every issue, but we are at a point where a new approach must be taken in dealing with the drug issue. I feel Gov. Gary Johnson would be a step in the right direction and I'm letting my representatives know that. This appointment is very important and we should all put our two cents in before it's too late. I did.... 
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Comment #12 posted by jAhn on April 20, 2001 at 12:55:36 PT
Operation Ivy, anyone???
Fun Song for 420: Operation Ivy's "Officer!" get it at an independant record shoppe!
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Comment #11 posted by jAhn on April 20, 2001 at 12:54:13 PT
America is Run by Bullies? No way, you say?sure!!!
Not to worry, Frustrated, I'm 24 and I live with such repulsion and fear of a Society/Culture that grants Rock Climbers, Nascar Drivers, football bullies, Fraternity Goons Dangerous Log-Burning, Backyard Wrestling, Fag-Hating Baseball Players, etc....(imagine who gets to do what While Feds and DEA agents Hound the Hell out of people who smoke (not Tobacco-something Less Poisonous)  some personal freedom before it interdicts in a Terminally Ill patients' life and tells the sick individual that Smoking pot, regardless of 4000 years of doctrined history, is Forbade in "this holy land"! If I were terminally ill I would have left for Switzerland or Amsterdam by now...I'd be Petrified of the "Government" of Amerikkka. The world's most Dangerous stunts are conducted here.The world's most Harmful "sports" are also played here! If I were Other Countries, I'd tell that Amerikkkan DEAland to Leave the Big Picture up to someone else...Amerikkka is too short-sighted and self-servant to understand that other countries, actually DO rely on certain crops for strong economic viability. P.S. FahCK You, Carnivore!!!
Chaosmarket: FTAA & NAFTA gone wrong?
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Comment #10 posted by Frustrated on April 20, 2001 at 10:15:01 PT
Shrub Scares Me...
My worst nightmare became reality when Shrub became prez. Now, everything i feared is coming to pass: environmental unconcern and exploitation, indifference to human rights, and now an escalation of an already failed policy...the Drug War!!! [aka Citizen War]i see far too many unsavory parallels between what's going on in Colombia and what could possibly happen here, as DanB already pointed out.Sometimes, i feel like i need to leave the "Land of the Free" and become a citizen of another country, like Switzerland, to live my life as i choose. (although i know that is unrealistic as well.)Will the madness ever stop? i'm only 26, and i don't want to spend the rest of my life this scared and concerned over the erosion of personal freedoms. Is there yet hope?
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Comment #9 posted by Kevin Hebert on April 20, 2001 at 09:48:36 PT:
Bring It On
If Bush thinks the way to bring the people over to his side on the drug war is with John Walters, he's wrong. I actually hope he does pick a real hard-liner, as oppossed to someone like Califano who talks out of one side of his mouth about "treatment" (compulsory reprogramming by the state) but insists on keeping the "lock 'em up" strategy in place. Putting a real right-wing radical on drug policy may be what it takes to ennervate the American people. Sure, many will sit like sheep, but for those who care -- like us, for example, it's a perfect target. The days of locking up drug users as criminals is about to end. Bring on John Walters, I say: I know I have nothing to fear so long as I know the truth.4/20
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Comment #8 posted by Rainbow on April 20, 2001 at 06:56:35 PT
BTP
I wonder where the next Boston Tea party will be!I think it ought to be on the shores of the Patomic River. Or maybe better yet in Boston harbor once again.The international tribunal ought to be watching this obvious Human Rights violation.I wonder if there ill be a real Plan Eurpoe and Plan Canada soon. I would not put it past this dummies.We ought to write a book Drug Wars for Dummies.CheersRainbowP.S. F__U Carnivore
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Comment #7 posted by sm247 on April 20, 2001 at 06:52:58 PT
Sing along now !
We don't need no drug Czar we don't need no prohibition(sung to the tune "Another brick in the wall" by Pink Floyd")
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Comment #6 posted by JJM on April 20, 2001 at 06:05:39 PT
Don't worry, be happy
It's OK to have a rabid prohibitionist as drug czar. Makes it easier to point out the obvious dishonesty of his position. Remember...DRUG WAR IS TREASON
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Comment #5 posted by dddd on April 20, 2001 at 01:06:32 PT
Well said Dan Dan & Dankhank
I liked the ending of the Emily Strodamus piece....I'm afraid you'reright.People dont care.They no longer feel the stirring call of revolution and rebellion......and I think I know the reason;Years ago,revolutions werefar safer,and people were not as sufficiently comfortable as they aretoday.Now days,,,they have ways of dealing with revolutions,,,the mediacan infer infamamy,or radical tendencies to your revolution,and the nextday,the revolutionists are viewed as a fringe group of irresponsiblemalcontents,,,and the revolution starts to dim....That is one of best and special things about the internet,the unfettered,and free exchangeof information here will not last though.The internet will eventually be owned and controlled by a corporate beast...........'It was the best of times,and the worst of times',....Dickens...................I believe......dddd
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Comment #4 posted by Dankhank on April 20, 2001 at 00:04:43 PT:
Four Twenty ....
YEs indeedy it is 4/20 and coming up on 4:20AM in Nova Scotia or somewhere .....Light one up to the stupid evil fools that think they know what they are doing ...Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing."I'm not so charitable, they know and still do it ...Go to hell, all prohibitionists ...
HEMP n STUFF
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on April 19, 2001 at 23:58:25 PT:
A New Message from Danstrodamus:
Hell hath no fury like freedom-loving Americans scorned. If this report is correct, the Drug War Groundhog came out of his den, saw his shadow, and scampered back underground, indicating that we will have a few more years of Nazi winter before we once again see a glimmer of hope from Washington D.C.If Bush gets this _____________(fill-in the blank) as his new drug czar, expect the absolute worst-case scenario for the next few years. That's the bad news.The good news is this: Bush is going to push Americans to the limit with regard to the war on some drugs. He is going to do everything he can to abuse people who use some drugs, and he is going to make tens of millions of people extremely angry in the process. Why is this good news?Because Americans are finally awakening to this issue. They are finally beginning to understand that a war on drugs is incompatible with traditional American civil liberties. Thousands of us are willing to be vocal about the truth, and as we become more vocal, those around us will likely follow suit.The last time we had a culture clash as enormous as the one that is forming before our eyes, it was over another war that was unwinnable the way we were fighting it: Vietnam. Guess what? The good guys won that culture clash, and America pulled out.This appointment is Bush's signal to America that he is desperate when it comes to fighting this faild war on some drugs. He's pulling out the big guns, and he's ready to take plenty of prisoners.Meanwhile, the states are rebelling all over the place. And if the states won't support Bush's party line, his only option will be to turn federal troops against American citizens. If that happens, we will truly become embroiled in a Colombia-style civil war. How much mayhem will Americans take in the name of fighting against some drugs? Let's see here . . .Hey . . . wait a minute! The American people aren't freedom lovers! The American people have supported these draconian policies for decades now. Who am I kidding? I must have been thinking of those great hemp farmers who founded this country.Nevermind.This has been a message from Dan "Emily Latilla" Strodamus.Dan B
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Comment #2 posted by Dan Hillman on April 19, 2001 at 23:32:55 PT
The (d)ope-iate of the masses.
> Walters, who has taught political science at several universities, is president of the conservative group The New Citizenship Project, which advocates an enhanced role for religion in American public life. Hmmm, wonder how Walters is gonna spin Dubyah's coke snortin' past? Like: will he warn the nation's youth that if you drink plenty of booze and snort up a mountain of premium blow, you run the risk of becoming president someday, as long as you smirkingly take up "jesus" just before your presidential run?Also: is Walters addicted to nicotine delivery systems like his buddy Bill Bennett is?I can hardly wait for this latest drug "czar" turkey to start making an ass of himself in front of the whole country. I sincerely hope that he is up to the task, as he has Bennet and McHalfFree to top for the role of biggest idjit ever to be appointed to the presidential cabinet. 
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Comment #1 posted by dddd on April 19, 2001 at 23:22:53 PT
Darn!
I was hopin' for Bob Weiner,,or Bill McCollum,,,or thatnice balanced fellow James McDonough....Oh well,,thisWalters guy sounds just wonderful....I knew the shrubadministration would dazzle us with an Ashcroft gradeobsessed good ol' boy,in the McCaffrey tradition...I think that we can put a good spin on this,when you considerthat this sort of radical,prohibitionist comrade,will furtherthe corporate-natzi gang of brown-nosed rogues,that dubyahas assembled in the shrub-club.....I wonder how long it willtake for Joe Public to be chagrinned to the point of actualrebellion against this phantasmagorical nightmare regime?Dubya has distinguished himself by being the most radical,hardnosed,idiot to ever occupy the whorehouse.The country has been fuckedwith more in the first 4 months of the bush regime,than any timein history.....It makes my old hippie blood boil with the spirit ofrebellion and revolution.(key words,I'm sure Carnivore has picked me up,and I.D.d me a long time ago.).....It seems like fewer and fewer Americans have the balls tospeak out nowdays,and it's no suprize.Thing are way morediabolical,and spooky nowdays.You never know who who has your number...........................JAH Warriors.....Revolution........Exodus......Movement of JAH Peopledddd
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