Maia Szalavitz: Obama Drug Czar Pick: No Recovery from War on Drugs?
Unfortunately, Ramstad may be a drug warrior in recovering person’s clothing. There is one issue that has consistently separated those who put science and saving lives in front of politics. That is needle exchange programs for addicts to prevent the spread of HIV and other blood borne illnesses.Even President Clinton now says he was “wrong” when he ignored the recommendations of every scientific and medical organization in the world that has examined the question — from the AMA to the World Health Organization — and refused to lift the federal ban on funding.
While Obama has said that he favors federal funding, the last thing we need is another drug czar to talk him out of it.
Ramstad looks like that person. I am awaiting comment from his office to see if he has changed his position, but his history on the issue isn’t good. In 1992, he said, “Federal funds should be used to get people off drugs not facilitate drug abuse…let’s support programs that save lives, not destroy lives.” By then, dozens of studies from around the world already suggested that clean needle programs not only reduce HIV, but attract addicts into recovery.
Ramstad also — again, against the evidence — opposes medical marijuana and supports federal policing and prosecution of providers and patients in the states that have made it legal. These states have not seen the rise in teen drug use that opponents like the Congressman predicted.
There’s simply no evidence that allowing sick people to get needed medication conflicts with helping addicts. Obama has said he does not support these prosecutions — will Ramstad push him in the wrong direction here, too? In an economic crisis, do we really want to spend federal time and money locking up medical marijuana providers and sick people?
While Ramstad has opposed some interdiction efforts and called for more treatment funding, someone who doesn’t even believe that addicts have a right to life if they aren’t in treatment is not the kind of recovering person that I want representing me as drug czar.
That’s not change, President Obama — that’s more of the same. Don’t make the mistake that Bill Clinton did and install a drug czar who will ignore science and push dogma.
Same person.
You’re talking about the various crack/meth paraphernalia sold in convenience stores, and I get your point. I don’t believe syringes should be sold in convenience stores, though. I believe in clinic-run needle exchange programs.
I’d also note that in a framework of drug regulation rather than drug prohibition, the vendors wouldn’t have to make paraphernalia disguised as “BBQ supplies” – the paraphernalia could be then separated into adults-only stores rather than convenience stores.
Meant to address the previous post to poster with nickname “Radical” Russ, not Radical Russ.
Radical Russ: you say “it’s not like stores will be rushing to bring in the addict business.”
You are fooling yourself.
I went to my local convenience store today to pick up a bag of potato chips (I am an addict) and a yerba mate drink (guess what? I am an addict). On their shelves they have tobacco, liquor, pornography, dice, cards, you name it. They also have a fake “barbecue accessories” section with giant butane lighters and brillo pads presumably for smoking rocks… I mean scrubbing your barbecue. At the counter the have blunt wrappers, air freshener in what basically is a test tube, ginseng extract in a smaller test tube, and open glass tubes with novelty trinkets inside.
Take a wild guess at how many people buy a brillo pad, a big butane lighter, and an open glass tube who are not crack addicts.
Now, try taking a wild guess at how many convenience stores would stock syringes right next to the air freshener in a tube? Syringe in a tube? Think about it.
Ganja, while it would be nice if the libertarian dream of “get government out of the way so that the free markets can take care of us all” dream would come true, the fact is that drugs won’t be carried in stores anytime soon, and even if needles were available, it’s not like stores will be rushing to bring in the addict business.
Private charities, while also nice, do not have the funding and reach to deal with what truly is a public health issue. Government-funded doesn’t mean government-run; these could be grants to charities that do needle exchange.
Finally, government doesn’t do everything inefficiently, this is a favorite right-wing talking point, e.g., “they can’t even deliver my mail!” Fact is that government run healthcare (Medicare) works with about 3% costs to overhead, while private healthcare spends 20% on overhead. And the Postal Service, while not technically government-run, does a phenomenal job delivering mail.
I really don’t understand anymore. Has no one in congress every stood up and said “How many people die of just marijuana a year” The answer will always be zero, against, alcohol, prescription drugs or whatever. Why is that point not made more aware. NO ONE HAS DIED.
I’ve posted this comment before, and I’m going to keep on doing it until it picks up steam. And it will work if we all join in. Since I contribute to Democratic causes, I get a lot of fund raising requests (both in email and snailmai).
Starting today, I am sending all the requests back saying;
A personal word to (whoever has sent the letter:
I’m not sending you guys another penny until I am assured that you will demonstrate a true desire to rethink and CHANGE our failed drug policies, that have only resulted in more arrests AND more drug use.
Our drug policies should be based on science, not politics.
Take a page from the Netherlands, and from states that have legalized medical cannabis, and decriminalized small amount of cannabis for personal use. These are place where illicit drug use has gone down.
Then I sign my name, address and phone number.
Use your own words, but hit them where is hurts: in the pocketbook.
I understand the point, but needle exchange programs should not be government funded. When ever the government takes on a task it does so inefficiently and ineffectively and most of the time unsuccessfully. We all know how incompetent the Drug Czar is. Do we really want people like him managing these programs?
Needles (and the drugs themselves) should be available at drug stores, convenience stores, and any other retailer willing to carry them without the fetters of regulation. Government should back off private charities that attempt to reduce harm by providing needles to addicts. If the government would simply get out of the way instead of trying to manage the minutia of ever social problem we may face, we would all be better off… no funding needed.