DRC CHRONICLES: …. [Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson] was in typical form last week, telling ABC News what he was all about. “I support gay unions. I think the government ought to get out of the marriage business. And then for me as governor of New Mexico, everything was a cost-benefit analysis. There weren’t any sacred cows — everything was a cost-benefit analysis. What are we spending money on and what are we getting for the money that we’re spending? So in that sense, the drug war is absolutely a failure.”
Drug reform as an issue is prominently displayed on Johnson’s campaign home page, and his drug reform page is worth noting. “Despite our best efforts at enforcement, education and interdiction, people continue to use and abuse illegal drugs,” the page says. “The parallels between drug policy today and Prohibition in the 1920’s are obvious, as are the lessons our nation learned. Prohibition was repealed because it made matters worse. Today, no one is trying to sell our kids bathtub gin in the schoolyard and micro-breweries aren’t protecting their turf with machine guns. It’s time to apply that thinking to marijuana. By making it a legal, regulated product, availability can be restricted, under-age use curtailed, enforcement/court/incarceration costs reduced, and the profit removed from a massive underground and criminal economy.
“By managing marijuana like alcohol and tobacco — regulating, taxing and enforcing its lawful use — America will be better off,” the issue page continues. “The billions saved on marijuana interdiction, along with the billions captured as legal revenue, can be redirected against the individuals committing real crimes against society. Harder drugs should not be legalized, but their use should be dealt with as a health issue — not a criminal justice issue.”… (more)
