Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Has Arianna been stealing from my blog? I'm just kidding, of course, but Arianna Huffington's new post sounds delightfully like a lot of stuff I've been talking about here. First, about the fact that the reasons to oppose the drug war cross political lines: Let's face it, it's not exactly left-wing to come out against a $40-billion-dollar-a-year War on Drugs that has unfairly targeted people of color, siphoned resources from the war on terror, and pitted the government against its own people. Nor is it left-wing to want to put an end to a War on Drugs that has turned into a war on America's minority communities. While blacks make up 13 percent of drug users, they account for 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession, 55 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. And the average prison term for black drug offenders is 69% longer [pdf] than for whites. It's not left-wing. It's not right-wing. It's common sense. And it's why people from all parts of the political spectrum are finally speaking out on the issue. As I've said before, on how many issues do Jesse Jackson, George Soros, Walter Cronkite, the ACLU, Cato, Bill Buckley, George Shultz and the Heritage Foundation agree? And then about our political leaders... The only ones who don't seem convinced are our political leaders, who continue to hide on the issue -- just as so many of them are hiding on the war in Iraq. And they're doing it for the same reason: they are terrified of being seen as soft on defense, soft on the military, soft on terror, and soft on crime and drugs. And their fear is making them soft in the head -- and soft in the spine. Aren't you sick and tired of politicians who are supposed to be on your side betraying you -- and betraying common sense -- because of their fears? Nice post. And today, Balloon Juice's John Cole linked approvingly to my collaborated post over at Glenn Greenwald's, while last week Glenn Reynolds suggested legalizing drugs. It is true. Drug policy reform is left, right, and center. It is libertarian, democratic and republican. It is right for the people and the country. 11:47:33 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []