Katrina vanden Heuvel: Jim Webb Tackles Our Tangled Drug Policy

[marmar]

from The Nation:



Jim Webb Tackles Our Tangled Drug Policy
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 06/20/2008 @ 11:57am



Yesterday Senator Jim Webb--who seems to be on many people's shortlist as a possible running mate for Senator Barack Obama--chaired the Joint Economic Committee's hearing on "Illegal Drugs: Economic Impact, Societal Costs, Policy Reponses". It was the second hearing on drug policy that Senator Webb has convened, the first focused on the steep increase in the US prison population.

In his two years in Congress, Senator Webb has established himself as a leader in fighting for economic populism, an end to the War in Iraq and a new GI Bill. Yesterday we saw that his interest in revamping our approach to drug policy is strong as well.

In his opening statement Senator Webb noted that we have 5 percent of the world's population and 20 percent of the world's prison population--"either we have the most evil people in the world or we are doing something wrong with the way we handle our criminal justice system, and I choose the latter. The central role of drug policy in filling our nation's prisons makes clear that our approach to curbing illegal drug use is broken."

Senator Webb said the illegal drug problem is one of "demand-pull--the rest of the world looks at drug use in this country and provides a supply to meet the demand that's here." The demand is so great that "global exports of wine and beer are equivalent to only one-quarter of illegal drug flows," and US, Canada and Mexico account for 44 percent of those illegal drug sales. (Webb said the latter is a "conservative estimate" from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.)

"While (the US is) spending enormous amounts of money to intercept drug shipments at the border and inside the country," the Senator said, "supplies remain consistent." According to a UN report, Colombian farmers planted 245,000 acres of coca last year, 27 percent more than in 2006. And coca cultivation in the three largest producers--Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia--increased by 16 percent to 447,743 acres. The Washington Post writes, "The findings follow almost eight years of heavy aerial fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, an American-designed strategy that has cost more than $5 billion." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/331478

[lxlxlxl]

1. The incarceration rate in this country deserves to be a front and center issue...

That 5%/20% statistic is obscene beyond belief. Do we really think we can convince other people to adopt our values when there is something so clearly wrong here?

[crickets]

2. K&R

:dem:

[Wizard777]

3. The war on drug is ANOTHER stupid Republican war we need to end.

If only because a large part of that "war" is against Americans and that's treason. I'm talking Consitutionally defined act of treason.

[beac]

8. Republicans: Making War on Nouns is What We Do!

"The Founding Fathers were Verbal Adjectivists and we won't stop until every last noun has been defeated!"

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Webb is definitely making more and more sense

[Asgaya Dihi]

5. K&R nt

[skids]

6. OK Webb gets a point for this in my book...

...though he's working up from a FISA-induced deficit at this point.

As far as VP selections, I have to admit that despite Biden's history as a drug warrior, I would love to see him tear apart the other side in debates. If conventional political wisdom is correct and the attack dog role is the most important VP characteristic other than being able to work with the Presidential Nominee... well you couldn't get a better attack dog than Biden.

Just the drug warrior thing kills my enthusiasm. Maybe time to look at Webb. Not that there are not plenty of other choices.

And not that any of us here really have a role to play in that decision -- too much behind the scenes polling and focus grouping and wheeling and dealing for us to really weigh in with anything helpful.

[RainDog]

7. Like Nixon to China

Webb is the person to bring up these issues b/c of the stupidity of people in this nation about this issue (stupidity b/c of so much propaganda.) He comes across as "law and order." I also think he's a good v.p. choice b/c he would be good on attack and b/c he would bring in VA and maybe more.

I do not want my tax money to go to pay to incarcerate people who use drugs who are not also violent criminals. I would bet, based upon Schlosser's Reefer Madness info, that's not too many of the people in jail right now for drug possession, etc.

The numbers are there to make the case that the drug war is a failure, unless you want to continue it to have ways to raise money for special ops that you don't want to have to account for in Congress.