Maybe some good news for a change:
LA City Beat
02/01/07
A Change in the Weather
Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House
subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug
policy
~ By DEAN KUIPERS ~ (he wrote Burning Rainbow farm)
~ The drug hawk’s worst nightmare: Kucinich’s hearings
will raise a ruckus ~
The Democratic sweep in the 2006 mid-term elections has
done more than finally install a woman as speaker of
the House. It has also put one of the most vocal
critics of the ill-starred “War on Drugs” in a
position to affect federal drug policy. On January 18,
Ohio Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich, one of the most progressive Democratic
voices in the House, was appointed as chair of the new
House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on
domestic policy, causing drug reform organizations
coast-to-coast to rejoice in hopes that a moment for
significant change may have finally come.
This subcommittee replaces the now-defunct Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources
subcommittee, which was headed up by staunch drug
warrior, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). Kucinich will assume
many of his oversight duties, including policy
oversight of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy and appointed Drug Czar John Walters.
One commentator on Stopthedrugwar. org crowed that “the
responsibility of overseeing the ONDCP has effectively
been transferred from Congress’s most reckless drug
warrior to its most outspoken drug policy reformer”
[his emphasis].
“He is certainly the polar opposite of his
predecessor, Mark Souder,” says Allen St. Pierre,
spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Since the time the
[ONDCP] was created in 1988, there have always been
friendly people in that subcommittee and the ONDCP has
always been able to get what they want under the guise
of protecting children and saving America from drugs.
But Kucinich doesn’t believe any of that. Any of it!”
For instance, St. Pierre notes, Kucinich is a
supporter of industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive
product of the cannabis sativa plant. He is also a
supporter of medical marijuana and of the federal
rescheduling of marijuana, where it is currently
illegal as a Schedule I drug, classified as having “no
medical value.” This classification clashes with
states such as California, which have legalized
medical use of marijuana, and leads directly to the
current rash of raids on medical marijuana
dispensaries by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Kucinich is expected, St. Pierre says, to be a sponsor
of a new bill to be introduced in March that would
decriminalize pot.
Washington insiders, however, are not holding their
breath for great upheaval in federal drug policy
overall. Sources close to the appointment, who asked
not to be named, say that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
other members of the Democratic leadership have
effectively embargoed major crime or drug policy
legislation for the next two years, to avoid looking
soft on crime in the 2008 election.
Kucinich, however, is promising a couple years of
entertaining and edifying hearings.
“We’re going to open up the discussion to new
hearings,” says Kucinich, interviewed Sunday in Culver City, where he presented his bill for Universal Health
Care, which is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers
(D-MI). “We want to explore the federal government’s
policies and the Department of Justice’s policies on
medical marijuana, for example. We need to also look
at the drug laws that have brought about mandatory
minimum sentences that have put people in jail for
long periods of time. I think it’s an appropriate time
to look at the proliferation of drugs in America, and
how that fits in with our health care crisis, and how
that fits in with law enforcement.”
The ONDCP did not reply to several requests for
comment. That office, however, which is a function of
the executive branch, has been deeply involved in
pushing heavy sentences for nonviolent drug offenders
and resisting medical marijuana, buying big-money ad
campaigns attacking marijuana in states trying to
legalize at the state level. Controlling that ad money
could be a key to reform. When asked if his
subcommittee has any budget oversight or other muscle,
Kucinich shook his head and added, “No, this committee
does not have control of the budgets, but it does have
control of the policy, and it can ask questions and
get documents that others couldn’t get.”
That can make a difference, says Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of
the nation’s biggest drug policy reform organizations.
His group plans to push for incremental slices of
legislation that can move a progressive agenda while
not upsetting Democratic unity, adding that Kucinich
can “hold hearings on some of the subjects that
haven’t been addressed in, you know, decades. Like a
hearing on America having the highest incarceration
rate in the world. Or maybe a hearing on why the DEA
has jurisdiction over medical issues.
“One can obviously empathize with the democratic
leadership’s desire to be cautious when it comes to
supporting drug policy reforms and other sentencing
reforms,” he adds. “But when you have a growing number
of Republicans supporting sentencing reform, this
might be a good time for the Democrats to show a
little leadership.”
In fact, several activists point out, the new Congress
may be the most sympathetic to drug-law reform that
America has ever seen. Progressives like Senator
Richard Durbin and Reps. Pelosi, George Miller,
Conyers, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Kucinich, and
Bobby Scott have all turned up in leadership
positions.
“If we had to pick out our 40 best friends in
Congress, they’d be disproportionately in leadership
positions,” says Nadelmann. He includes Sen. Patrick
Leahy on that list, but cautions: “Mind you, seven
years ago, Leahy said that sentencing reform was one
of the top priorities, but now it’s not even a top-10
priority. Part of that’s because there’s so much other
stuff to deal with.”
Still, action on several fronts is expected.
Sentencing reform should get some attention, with an
aim of reducing the number of non-violent drug
offenders currently getting long prison sentences,
which has given the U.S. the highest per-capita
incarceration rate in the world. One such change would
be to make sentences involving crack cocaine equal to
those given for powdered cocaine, as community
activists have long contended these simply punish the
black and poor who are more likely to use the drug in
the form of crack. Hearings might also bring new media
scrutiny to decades-long marijuana rescheduling
motions and several Data Quality Act petitions, which
force bodies like the Food and Drug Administration to
make decisions based on science rather than ideology,
and which have been roundly ignored by the Bush
administration.
St. Pierre points out another potential point of
influence: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, or
HIDTAs. Congress funnels millions of dollars to local
law enforcement for use in these areas, and activists
have long argued they are wrongly prioritized.
“That’s a very obscure acronym, but when it comes down
to the billions of dollars that get channeled out to
local governments and their law enforcement, HIDTA is
the battleground. That’s where Dennis can come in and
say, ‘Mr. Walters, we the Congress, and, clearly, your
own constituents want methamphetamines as the number
one priority, not marijuana, and certainly not in the
states that have medical marijuana laws.’ A couple of
weeks ago, Walters was out in Fresno giving awards
away for busting buyers’ clubs. Dennis can clip those
wings. It all depends on how he’s going to want to
pull the trigger.”
*
Effecting Positive Change Through
Education, Awareness, Cannabis & Music,
Rob Robinson
Executive Director - NY NORML (NY State Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
Senior Activist - NY State CAN (Cannabis Action Network)
Adviser - New Paltz NORML / SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Founder - NY Harvest Fest
Owner - Damn Sam Productions
Co-Publisher - Notes on the Scene
www.nynorml. org
www.nystatecan. org
www.newpaltz. edu/norml
www.nyharvestfest. com
www.damnsam. com
www.notesonthescene .com
(845) 943-8883
LA City Beat
02/01/07
A Change in the Weather
Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House
subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug
policy
~ By DEAN KUIPERS ~ (he wrote Burning Rainbow farm)
~ The drug hawk’s worst nightmare: Kucinich’s hearings
will raise a ruckus ~
The Democratic sweep in the 2006 mid-term elections has
done more than finally install a woman as speaker of
the House. It has also put one of the most vocal
critics of the ill-starred “War on Drugs” in a
position to affect federal drug policy. On January 18,
Ohio Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich, one of the most progressive Democratic
voices in the House, was appointed as chair of the new
House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on
domestic policy, causing drug reform organizations
coast-to-coast to rejoice in hopes that a moment for
significant change may have finally come.
This subcommittee replaces the now-defunct Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources
subcommittee, which was headed up by staunch drug
warrior, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). Kucinich will assume
many of his oversight duties, including policy
oversight of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy and appointed Drug Czar John Walters.
One commentator on Stopthedrugwar. org crowed that “the
responsibility of overseeing the ONDCP has effectively
been transferred from Congress’s most reckless drug
warrior to its most outspoken drug policy reformer”
[his emphasis].
“He is certainly the polar opposite of his
predecessor, Mark Souder,” says Allen St. Pierre,
spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Since the time the
[ONDCP] was created in 1988, there have always been
friendly people in that subcommittee and the ONDCP has
always been able to get what they want under the guise
of protecting children and saving America from drugs.
But Kucinich doesn’t believe any of that. Any of it!”
For instance, St. Pierre notes, Kucinich is a
supporter of industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive
product of the cannabis sativa plant. He is also a
supporter of medical marijuana and of the federal
rescheduling of marijuana, where it is currently
illegal as a Schedule I drug, classified as having “no
medical value.” This classification clashes with
states such as California, which have legalized
medical use of marijuana, and leads directly to the
current rash of raids on medical marijuana
dispensaries by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Kucinich is expected, St. Pierre says, to be a sponsor
of a new bill to be introduced in March that would
decriminalize pot.
Washington insiders, however, are not holding their
breath for great upheaval in federal drug policy
overall. Sources close to the appointment, who asked
not to be named, say that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
other members of the Democratic leadership have
effectively embargoed major crime or drug policy
legislation for the next two years, to avoid looking
soft on crime in the 2008 election.
Kucinich, however, is promising a couple years of
entertaining and edifying hearings.
“We’re going to open up the discussion to new
hearings,” says Kucinich, interviewed Sunday in Culver City, where he presented his bill for Universal Health
Care, which is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers
(D-MI). “We want to explore the federal government’s
policies and the Department of Justice’s policies on
medical marijuana, for example. We need to also look
at the drug laws that have brought about mandatory
minimum sentences that have put people in jail for
long periods of time. I think it’s an appropriate time
to look at the proliferation of drugs in America, and
how that fits in with our health care crisis, and how
that fits in with law enforcement.”
The ONDCP did not reply to several requests for
comment. That office, however, which is a function of
the executive branch, has been deeply involved in
pushing heavy sentences for nonviolent drug offenders
and resisting medical marijuana, buying big-money ad
campaigns attacking marijuana in states trying to
legalize at the state level. Controlling that ad money
could be a key to reform. When asked if his
subcommittee has any budget oversight or other muscle,
Kucinich shook his head and added, “No, this committee
does not have control of the budgets, but it does have
control of the policy, and it can ask questions and
get documents that others couldn’t get.”
That can make a difference, says Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of
the nation’s biggest drug policy reform organizations.
His group plans to push for incremental slices of
legislation that can move a progressive agenda while
not upsetting Democratic unity, adding that Kucinich
can “hold hearings on some of the subjects that
haven’t been addressed in, you know, decades. Like a
hearing on America having the highest incarceration
rate in the world. Or maybe a hearing on why the DEA
has jurisdiction over medical issues.
“One can obviously empathize with the democratic
leadership’s desire to be cautious when it comes to
supporting drug policy reforms and other sentencing
reforms,” he adds. “But when you have a growing number
of Republicans supporting sentencing reform, this
might be a good time for the Democrats to show a
little leadership.”
In fact, several activists point out, the new Congress
may be the most sympathetic to drug-law reform that
America has ever seen. Progressives like Senator
Richard Durbin and Reps. Pelosi, George Miller,
Conyers, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Kucinich, and
Bobby Scott have all turned up in leadership
positions.
“If we had to pick out our 40 best friends in
Congress, they’d be disproportionately in leadership
positions,” says Nadelmann. He includes Sen. Patrick
Leahy on that list, but cautions: “Mind you, seven
years ago, Leahy said that sentencing reform was one
of the top priorities, but now it’s not even a top-10
priority. Part of that’s because there’s so much other
stuff to deal with.”
Still, action on several fronts is expected.
Sentencing reform should get some attention, with an
aim of reducing the number of non-violent drug
offenders currently getting long prison sentences,
which has given the U.S. the highest per-capita
incarceration rate in the world. One such change would
be to make sentences involving crack cocaine equal to
those given for powdered cocaine, as community
activists have long contended these simply punish the
black and poor who are more likely to use the drug in
the form of crack. Hearings might also bring new media
scrutiny to decades-long marijuana rescheduling
motions and several Data Quality Act petitions, which
force bodies like the Food and Drug Administration to
make decisions based on science rather than ideology,
and which have been roundly ignored by the Bush
administration.
St. Pierre points out another potential point of
influence: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, or
HIDTAs. Congress funnels millions of dollars to local
law enforcement for use in these areas, and activists
have long argued they are wrongly prioritized.
“That’s a very obscure acronym, but when it comes down
to the billions of dollars that get channeled out to
local governments and their law enforcement, HIDTA is
the battleground. That’s where Dennis can come in and
say, ‘Mr. Walters, we the Congress, and, clearly, your
own constituents want methamphetamines as the number
one priority, not marijuana, and certainly not in the
states that have medical marijuana laws.’ A couple of
weeks ago, Walters was out in Fresno giving awards
away for busting buyers’ clubs. Dennis can clip those
wings. It all depends on how he’s going to want to
pull the trigger.”
*
Effecting Positive Change Through
Education, Awareness, Cannabis & Music,
Rob Robinson
Executive Director - NY NORML (NY State Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
Senior Activist - NY State CAN (Cannabis Action Network)
Adviser - New Paltz NORML / SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Founder - NY Harvest Fest
Owner - Damn Sam Productions
Co-Publisher - Notes on the Scene
www.nynorml. org
www.nystatecan. org
www.newpaltz. edu/norml
www.nyharvestfest. com
www.damnsam. com
www.notesonthescene .com
(845) 943-8883
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