Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN): Obama’s new Drug Czar?

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Rep. Jim Ramstad’s name is being bandied about in D.C. as a possible “drug czar,” or head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.President-Elect Barack Obama is filling out his team, and Politico, a respected Washington tabloid that covers all things Washington, has mentioned the retiring Minnesota Republican as a potentially popular and bipartisan pick.

Sources close to Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic and longtime proponent of mental health and drug treatment, say he might be interested. Although Ramstad cited fatigue with the weekly Washington commute in his decision to retire after 18 years in Congress, sources say that could be trumped by his passion for helping addicts like himself.

Ramstad’s spokesman, Dean Peterson, told Politico that it’s “gratifying to hear Jim’s name being mentioned for drug czar.” Peterson noted that Ramstad has worked for 27 years on anti-drug efforts in Congress and the Minnesota Senate.

“As a recovering person, he’s worked every day to help those suffering the ravages of chemical addiction,” Peterson told Politico.

Let’s just see how Jim Ramstad has worked in the US Congress to help all us ravaged cannabis consumers:

• Voted against the Hinchey Amendment in 2007 and 2005 that would have suspended funds used by the Department of Justice to conduct raids in medical marijuana states.
• Voted in 1999 for the DC Appropriations Bill (Section 167) that said that even though 69% of the residents of the District of Columbia approved medical marijuana, DC couldn’t spend any money to enact the initiative.

“We are honored to have Congressman Ramstad join our board of directors,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “He is an outstanding and tenacious leader in the effort to obtain parity in health insurance reimbursement for substance abuse and mental health. With Representative Ramstad’s support we hope to begin a cultural change potent enough to prompt a revolution in the way our government addresses substance abuse and addiction.”

…by declaring responsible adult cannabis users “addicts” and using workplace drug testing and mandated rehab to funnel their health insurance money into the drug treatment industry.

So, for a new Drug Czar, for the “change we can believe in”, we might get an anti-medical marijuana recovering alcoholic who serves on a board for a group that shamelessly promotes the “Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed” debunked cannabis potency arguments and trumpets the drug-court-mandated cannabis treatment as proof there is an epidemic of marijuana “addiction”.  That’s who we get to go with Attorney General Eric “Tough on marijuana crimes” Holder, Vice President Joe “Mandatory Minimums” Biden, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm “Silence Doctors on MedMJ” Emanuel.

Gee, are you sure John Ashcroft’s not available for the job?