COPS: Obama "All talk, and no game" in the war on drugs...

[Bennyboy]

Cops Say Obama is "All Talk, No Game" on Treating Drugs as a Health Issue

President Maintains Bush Administration Ratio Favoring Punishment Over Treatment

Just Weeks Ago, Obama Said We Need to "Shift Resources" But He Didn't Do It

WASHINGTON, DC -- A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who have waged the so-called "war on drugs" is criticizing President Obama because his federal drug control budget, released today, doesn't match up to his rhetoric on treating drug abuse as a health problem.

Obama's federal drug control budget maintains a Bush-era disparity devoting nearly twice as many resources to punishment as it does for treatment and prevention, despite his saying less than three weeks ago that, “We have to think more about drugs as a public health problem," which requires "shifting resources." The president's comments came during a January 27 YouTube interview, in response to a question from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition member MacKenzie Allen, a retired deputy sheriff. Video of that exchange is available at http://www.youtube.com/CopsSayLegalizeDrugs

"I don't understand how the president can tell us with a straight face that he wants to treat drugs as a health issue but then turn around just a few weeks later and put out a budget that continues to emphasize punishment and interdiction," said Neill Franklin, LEAP executive director and a former narcotics officer in Baltimore. "The president needs to put his money where his mouth is. Right now it looks like he's simply all talk and no game."

In releasing the drug control budget today, the administration did reverse a Bush-era accounting trick that hid some costs of the "war on drugs," such as incarceration. But the drug control budget breakdown, available online at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/policy/12budget/fy12Highlight.pdf, clearly shows that under both the new and old calculations, supply reduction receives far more resources than demand reduction does.




http://copssaylegalize.blogspot.com/2011/02/cops-say-obama-is-all-talk-no-game-on.html

[Moondog]

1. It sounds as though

he wants to straddle the issue in an attempt to have it both ways.

I wish I could say that I was shocked, but I'm not.

[RKP5637]

4. Kind of a repeating pattern too IMO. n/t

[Blue Owl]

2. No change there

Keep failure alive!

[polichick]

3. This is really sad, considering how much damage the idiotic war on drugs...

...has caused, especially to young people.

imo this prez stands for nothing.

[RKP5637]

5. We're just treading water IMO in a number of areas. n/t

[endless october]

6. if he really wants to reduce the deficit,

stop wasting money on the failed pot war.

[spanone]

7. which cops?

[Rageneau]

8. Obama is a war-monger where drugs are concerned, too.