Rand Paul, Drug War State's Righter
How has Jack Conway, Rand Paul's Democratic challenger in the Kentucky Senate race, characterized the libertiarianish Republican's consistent stand that drug policy and enforcement should be handled at the state rather than federal level?
"Rand will handcuff local sheriffs trying to combat the drug epidemic, and I will make sure Kentucky's law enforcement has the tools they need to protect our families," Conway said. "That's my record as attorney general, and that's what I'll do in Washington."…
Ed Schemelya, point man in the federal government's marijuana eradication program in the central Appalachians, said cutting off federal funding would embolden drug traffickers in the region.
"It would be impossible to stop them without federal assistance, because of the dire straights that these economies are in," Schemelya said.
Schemelya heads a law enforcement cooperative that confiscated some $2 billion worth of marijuana in the Appalachians last year, most of it grown on remote mountainsides.
Paul hasn't been shy about speaking his mind on the drug enforcement issue, telling local leaders during a political forum last month that involving Washington in the matter leads to waste. "I think issues like drug use and abuse are best dealt with at the local level," he said.
