Drug czar gets chilly reception
Today's Rocky Mountain News reports:
America's drug czar is in Colorado this week to counter efforts to legalize marijuana... John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, will release data from drug treatment programs and workplace testing that prove marijuana is a severe problem in Colorado.
Walters seems to contradict himself just a few paragraphs later, when he admits, "Over the last four years, the drug problem in American has gotten smaller."
Walters isn't exactly being welcomed into the state. SAFER director Mason Tvert, who is running the campaign to legalize marijuana possession, told the Denver Daily News, "There is little doubt he issued this release in order to justify spending taxpayer dollars to travel to Colorado to plot against our upcoming statewide initiative."
And many U.S. senators, including Ken Salazar, believe that the White House is wasting money going after marijuana users while ignoring more dangerous drugs. The Rocky's story says:
On Friday, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, urged President Bush to fire Walters for wasting millions on marijuana programs instead of tackling the more serious methamphetamine issue... Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said Salazar won't ask Bush to fire Walters, but he would like to invite Walters to visit rural areas of Colorado. "The rural sheriffs would say that meth is our biggest problem," said Wertz. "We do need to focus more on the methamphetamine scourge than marijuana."
I've got two words for you: wedge issue. The Republicans can't win in 2006 on healthcare, the budget, security, education or the environment. So they give us an imaginary marijuana epidemic. Next thing you know, they'll be blaming our nation's problems on gay marriage.
Oh, wait.
America's drug czar is in Colorado this week to counter efforts to legalize marijuana... John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, will release data from drug treatment programs and workplace testing that prove marijuana is a severe problem in Colorado.
Walters seems to contradict himself just a few paragraphs later, when he admits, "Over the last four years, the drug problem in American has gotten smaller."
Walters isn't exactly being welcomed into the state. SAFER director Mason Tvert, who is running the campaign to legalize marijuana possession, told the Denver Daily News, "There is little doubt he issued this release in order to justify spending taxpayer dollars to travel to Colorado to plot against our upcoming statewide initiative."
And many U.S. senators, including Ken Salazar, believe that the White House is wasting money going after marijuana users while ignoring more dangerous drugs. The Rocky's story says:
On Friday, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, urged President Bush to fire Walters for wasting millions on marijuana programs instead of tackling the more serious methamphetamine issue... Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz said Salazar won't ask Bush to fire Walters, but he would like to invite Walters to visit rural areas of Colorado. "The rural sheriffs would say that meth is our biggest problem," said Wertz. "We do need to focus more on the methamphetamine scourge than marijuana."
I've got two words for you: wedge issue. The Republicans can't win in 2006 on healthcare, the budget, security, education or the environment. So they give us an imaginary marijuana epidemic. Next thing you know, they'll be blaming our nation's problems on gay marriage.
Oh, wait.
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