On the changing nature of drug policy discourse
“America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to “the so-called war on drugs,” presidential candidate John Edwards said here today.”
Source: DesMoinesRegister.com: Edwards: War on drugs too punitive
Something like this coming from a (somewhat) viable presidential candidate twenty years ago would be sufficient to bury his chances of being elected. It seems that we’ve come a long way since the “Casual drug users should be taken out and shot. Smoke a joint, lose your life.” pronouncement by the former Los Angeles Police Chief and the founder of the D.A.R.E. program Daryl Gates on September 5, 1990. Thankfully, today we don’t hear diatribes like this too often.
I hope that the changing nature of drug policy discourse is reflective of the changing social attitudes towards the punitive approach to the drug issues. Even, such admittedly obscurantist entity as the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy lists the “balanced drug control policy” as its main national priority - instead of stressing slash-and-burn tactics in the War on Drugs that it has continued to promote. It is good to see the menacing approach a la William Bennet or Daryl Gates go out of fashion - at least as far as the drug policy debate is concerned, albeit is still hasn’t translated into real action.
I wonder whether we are going to reach a tipping point where all these shy harbingers of common sense would saturate into a mass breaking of the flood gates that would allow the common sense voices to permeate drug policy discourse and, finally, result in real change.
admin :: Nov.23.2007 :: News, Social Policy :: No Comments »