Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump's Pick for 'Drug Czar' -- A Servant of Big Pharma and Brutal Punisher of Drug Addicts and Poor
Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Tom Marino reportedly gets the nod. It's not good news for progressive drug policy reform.President Trump will name Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino (R) to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP—the drug czar's office), CBS News reported Tuesday. Marino's legacy of legislative achievements around drug policy, however, raise serious questions about whether he is the right choice.
The White House had no official comment Tuesday, but sources told CBS News Marino is in the final stages of completing his paperwork and an official announcement would come soon. Marino's office had no comment.
Marino is a former prosecutor now in his third term in the House, and will step down from the Congress to take up his new position. His rural congressional district has seen rising concern about heroin and opioids, and he serves on the House bipartisan committee combating the opioid epidemic.
He has authored two recent successful drug policy bills, but both have their critics. The 2016 Transnational Drug Trafficking Act expands the ability of US prosecutors to use extraterritoriality to go after international drug traffickers, but while the law is touted as aiming at "kingpins," but observers south of the border have argued that the law "targets people on the lowest rungs of the trafficking ladder, i.e. Colombia's coca farmers."
The White House had no official comment Tuesday, but sources told CBS News Marino is in the final stages of completing his paperwork and an official announcement would come soon. Marino's office had no comment.
Marino is a former prosecutor now in his third term in the House, and will step down from the Congress to take up his new position. His rural congressional district has seen rising concern about heroin and opioids, and he serves on the House bipartisan committee combating the opioid epidemic.
He has authored two recent successful drug policy bills, but both have their critics. The 2016 Transnational Drug Trafficking Act expands the ability of US prosecutors to use extraterritoriality to go after international drug traffickers, but while the law is touted as aiming at "kingpins," but observers south of the border have argued that the law "targets people on the lowest rungs of the trafficking ladder, i.e. Colombia's coca farmers."
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/trump-drug-czar-nominess-tough-colombian-peasants-not-big-pharma
