AE-High?

Julian Sanchez | March 25, 2005

The Bush Administration's favorite think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, has just released An Analytic Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy. Among the report's conclusions:

• Domestic enforcement should be directed toward reducing drug-related problems, such as violence around drug markets, rather than locking up large numbers of low-level dealers.
  
• Eradication of drug crops in source countries should not necessarily be a routine aspect of international programs, especially where it may conflict with other foreign policy objectives. In fact, evidence shows that such control is very unlikely to reduce America's drug problem.
  
• Criminal punishment of marijuana use does not appear to be justified.
  
• Treatment services for heavy users, particularly methadone and other opiate maintenance therapies, need more money and fewer regulations.
  
• Programs that coerce convicted drug addicts to enter treatment and maintain abstinence as a condition of continued freedom should be augmented.

So... whoa. They're not exactly singing Peter Tosh songs, but that's a pretty radically sane position to take. That last bullet point, not so much—though I don't know that I'd oppose requiring people convicted of actual (i.e. violent) crimes to stay clean if their habit had been shown to be linked to their violent behavior. I'm curious to see what conservatives will make of this one.