Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro: Democrats Care About The Drug War

CHARLOTTE - Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-Connecticut) claims Democrats care about reforming the War on Drugs, but she is unable to name any evidence for this. When asked about the Obama Administration's drug policies, she changes the subject, insisting that voters need to look at the totality of President Obama's time in office.

"Take a look at what Barack Obama has done since he took office. Taking a nation that was on its knees financially, something he had nothing to do with, the prior administration had a lot to with losing 700,000 jobs a month, trying to put the country back on track again was a very big undertaking," she said when asked about the administration's dismal record on drug policy reform.

DeLauro wasn't particularly interested in talking about the specifics of Obama's drug policy, returning again to his domestic policy agenda.

"He did an incredible amount for the ability of kids to go to school, get their opportunity for an education," DeLauro said. "We passed a transformative piece of health care legislation. These are very, very big items. He signed the first bill that talked about paycheck fairness for women, all kinds of efforts that have been successful. Sometimes you can't get to do everything that you stated you wanted to do. But people need to take a look at the direction that nation is going in and its economic stability and its growth for the future. That's where they ought to make their judgment." 

She rejected the suggestion that the Obama administration was a disappointment on drugs, saying "I don't buy that, no."

Obama's drug policy has been no less punitive than George W. Bush's. The president has repeatedly violated his own pledge to respect the will of voters in states that have allowed medical cannabis use, launching raids on dispensaries in Colorado, California, and other states. In forums where he speaks with the public, he is usually bombarded (despite very tight restrictions on participation) with questions about reforming America's draconian drug policy, but so far he has replied to all of these with ridicule or silence. 

DeLauro, however, assured me that reforming America's drug policy is a high priority to the Democratic Party.

"Of course it is," she said, before listing off reforms implemented because of Obamacare. 

Comments

[heller]

See, she's showing you Obama's drug policy by completely ignoring drug questions. Teaching by example!

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama's drug is now and has always been a very balanced and reasonable hey look over there.

[Hyperion]

Yeah, the Democrats care about the WOD just like the GOP does. They care about keeping it going for their buddies at the DEA.

[ant1sthenes]

Not just the DEA. By employing harsher federal asset forfeiture rules and splitting the proceeds with local police in areas where either asset forfeiture laws have been tightened up or drug laws have been liberalized, the feds are working to purchase the loyalty of local police departments away from the communities who nominally pay their salaries (giveaways of military hardware and training work to the same end).

The drug war is a tool to essentially federalize local police, in the same way that Dept of Ed programs help federalize schooling and take control away from communities.

Remember this?

Money quote:
"Ryan Opposed Additional Funding for Anti-Drug Enforcement Efforts. In 2003, Ryan voted against the Consolidated Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2003, which included... $226.4 million for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program... The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program... primarily supported progressive initiatives such as co-located task forces, intelligence sharing and electronic networking of Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies, and linkages between the criminal justice system and drug treatment."

[Malcolm Kyle]

When Bill Clinton took office in January 1993, the violent crack epidemic of the late 1980s was already subsiding, the prison population?local, state and federal?was about 1.3 million. When Clinton left office, that number had ballooned to over 2 million?giving us the World's highest rate of incarceration.

"(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that ?
(A) is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
(B) has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;"

It was Joe Biden (yes our current Democrat VP) who authored this act, who wrote those words, and then pushed this abhorrent law through Congress. This also created the ONDCP, the position of "drug czar" - and the mandate to lie with impunity to the citizens of the United States.