Legalization Advocate To Testify Before Congress On Drug War

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Photo: Drug Reporter
Ethan Nadelmann, DPA: “The continuing emphasis on interdiction and law enforcement in the federal Drug War budget suggest that ONDCP is far more wedded to the failures of the past than to any new vision for the future.”

​It’s no surprise that Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske will testify Wednesday before a Congressional subcommittee on the White House’s Drug War budget. More surprising, and more encouraging, is the fact that Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a group which has actively fought against the Drug War, will also be testifying.

The U.S. House Domestic Policy Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), will hold a hearing Wednesday morning on the Drug War budget and forthcoming 2010 National Drug Control Strategy.
Nadelmann’s testimony will focus on:
• The Drug War’s flawed performance measures
• The lop-sided ratio between supply and demand spending in the national drug budget

• The lack of innovation in the Drug Czar’s proposed strategies
• The Administration’s failure to adequately evaluate drug policies.
The hearing comes in the wake of significant drug policy reforms under the Obama Administration, including a directive urging federal law enforcement agencies to stop arresting medical marijuana patients and caregivers in compliance with their state’s medical marijuana laws.
The Administration’s Drug War budget, however, is still focused overwhelmingly on failed supply side policies, and ignores important harm reduction measures, according to DPA.

Photo: My Daily Toke
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske: “We’re not at war with people in this country.” (So call off the stormtroopers, already, Gil.)

​Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), told the Wall Street Journal last year that he doesn’t like to use the term “War On Drugs” because “we’re not at war with people in this country.”
Yet 64 percent of their budget — virtually the same as under the Bush Administration — focuses on largely futile, ineffective interdiction efforts, as well as arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating extraordinary numbers of people.
Only 36 percent of the budget is earmarked for demand reduction.
“Congress and the Obama Administration have broken with the costly and failed Drug War policies of the past in some important ways,” Nadelmann said. “But the continuing emphasis on interdiction and law enforcement in the federal Drug War budget suggest that ONDCP is far more weeded to the failures of the past than to any new vision for the future.”
“I urge this committee to hold ONDCP and federal drug policy accountable to new criteria that focus on reductions in the death, disease, crime and suffering associated with both drugs and drug prohibition,” Nadelmann said.
WHAT: Congressional Hearing: “ONDCP’s Fiscal Year 2011 National Drug Control Budget: Are We Still Funding A War On Drugs?”
WHEN: 10 a.m., Wednesday, April 14
WHERE: 2154 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C.
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