Report: Obama Will Seek To Scale Back Drug War In Second Term

[Tx4obama]

President Barack Obama will take steps to draw down the nation's decades-long war on drugs if he wins a second term, Marc Ambinder reports Monday in GQ.

According to Ambinder, Obama's "aides and associates" say that the president is looking to prioritize reform, a reflection of the president's long-held beliefs that strict drug prohibition and enforcement policies have done greater damage to society than good.

Sources close to the White House also told The Huffington Post that the administration is looking at ways that it can reduce barriers to reentering society for those caught up in the drug war, such as a longstanding policy that denies federal financial aid to college students convicted of drug-related offenses, including possession.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/obama-drug-war_n_1643483.html

[villager]

1. So... all the stuff he promised for his first term... he's now promising for the second?

Well, let's hope so.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. I, for one, applaud this development

[Comrade_McKenzie]

3. Making me more excited to go vote every day. nt

[Grown2Hate]

4. Shoring up that youth vote now...

I have no problem with this. Call me naive (seriously, you could make a serious argument for that here and I couldn't blame you), but I have always hoped that he'd REALLY be able to accomplish quite a bit more in this vein during a 2nd term (when he wouldn't be facing voters again). Oddly enough, this would be VERY good policy that a majority would probably agree with, but I can see the GOP hammering him for either being "soft on crime" or some other such nonsense about how all drug users are evil scum. I see them hammering him on everything ANYHOW, but I always thought this would be a 2nd term type of issue. There are ALWAYS politics involved...

[Jamaal510]

5. It's about time!

Last edited Tue Jul 3, 2012, 01:29 AM - Edit history (1)

Maybe he can fully "evolve" from a Charmander into a Charizard regarding the Drug War, like he has with gay marriage.
[IMG][/IMG]

[morningfog]

6. And he means it this time!

....starting now!

[Wounded Bear]

7. Snark aside, I hope he means it...

This should be attractive to some Libertarians, in any event.

[agentS]

9. Read "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

The drug wars are such an embedded system in American culture that it's going to take either a national emergency (a war on US soil, Occupy movement cubed, etc), or at least 3 presidential terms to unwind the system that depends on the drug wars. So I don't expect the system to chance overnight or even in the next 20 years. I don't think Obama does either so he'll do the little things within his power, getting the ball rolling towards decrim, I think.

[Oldenuff]

10. I'd like to be able to trust what he says...

but I remember him saying something about not hassleing the dispensaries...yet he sent the dogs out after them anyway.I don't know about you,but when someone says they won't do something,and they go and do it anyway,that's like,I dunno..lying or something wouldn't you think?

Yea.Whats that old saying? "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

So..I won't be holding my breath.