Tag: news

For one of the few times in its macro economic policy thought
and action, the federal government relies on a subtle analysis of
“things not seen” to defend its apparent $10.5 billion loss on the
General Motors bailout as a success,
via USA Today:

U.S. taxpayers no longer own any of automaker General Motors.
The Treasury sold the last of its remaining 31.1 million GM shares
today.

The taxpayer loss on the GM bailout finishes at $10.5 billion.
The Treasury department said it recovered $39 billion from selling
its GM stock, and had put $49.5 billion of taxpayer money into the
GM bailout….

The administration emphasizes that the loss it took on GM shares
is far less constly than had GM been allowed to fail.

“Inaction could have cost the broader economy more than one
million jobs, billions in lost personal savings, and significantly
reduced economic production,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in
a statement announcing that Treasury had sold all its remaining
shars.

What might have happened to that money, those resources,
those skills, those people, if they had not been diverted by
government action? No one knows, or will ever know, and the
government would prefer you not think about it.

See “Illegal. Illiberal. Ill-Fated,” our
Aug/Sept. 2009 cover story on why Washington shouldn’t have
bailed out the auto industry.

Today the Obama administration hosted the
first-ever White House Conference on Drug Policy Reform. But don’t
be confused: Although “drug policy reform” usually means moving
away from the use of violence to stop people from consuming
arbitrarily proscribed psychoactive substances, that is not what
President Obama has in mind.

“Drug policy reform should be rooted in neuroscience, not
political science,” says Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, in the
email message announcing the conference. “It should be a public
health issue, not just a criminal justice issue. That’s what a
21st-century approach to drug policy looks like.”  

In truth, this 21st-century approach to drug policy looks a lot
like the 20th-century approach to drug policy. Kerlikowske, who is
still upset that he does not get credit for ending
the war on drugs when he took office in 2009, thinks
enlightenment in this area means forcing
drug users into “treatment” by threatening them with jail rather
than sending them directly to jail. He needs the heavy hand of the
state not only to impose treatment on recalcitrant drug users but
to imprison people who supply them with the drugs they want. That
is why Kerlikowske says drug policy is “not just a
criminal justice issue”—because he cannot imagine a drug policy
that does not entail locking people in cages for actions that
violate no one’s rights, whether those actions involve using
politically disfavored intoxicants or helping people do so.

Patrick Kennedy, co-founder of the anti-pot group Project SAM, likewise tries to
distract attention from the half a million Americans imprisoned for
drug offenses. “For too long drug policy has been caught in between
the false dichotomy of legalization versus incarceration,” Kennedy
says in a press release about the White House conference, where he
co-chaired a panel. The alternative to legalization is continued
prohibition, which requires incarceration. Prohibitionists like
Kennedy and Kerlikowske should have the courage to defend stripping
people of their liberty for doing nothing more than supplying a
product to eager buyers. Instead they pretend this is not
happening.

As for Kerlikowske’s claim that he seeks to depoliticize drug
policy, that is impossible as long as the government tries to
dictate what people put into their bodies. How can such an endeavor
be anything but political? The Obama administration, for example,
is committed to
defending the position that marijuana, which the Drug
Enforcement Administration’s chief administrative law judge once
called
“the safest therapeutically active substance known to man,” has a
high potential for abuse, lacks medical value, and cannot be used
safely even under a doctor’s supervision. This is Kerlikowske’s
idea of sound science.

Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy
Project,
argues that Kerlikowske’s avowed respect for neuroscience is
also belied by his continued support for a policy that encourages
people to use a more dangerous intoxicant instead of marijuana.
“Every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it poses far
less harm to the brain than alcohol,” says Tvert, co-author of
Marijuana
Is Safer. “The ONDCP has long championed laws that steer
adults toward using alcohol and away from making the safer choice
to use marijuana. If the drug czar is truly committed to
prioritizing neuroscience over political science, he should support
efforts to make marijuana a legal alternative to alcohol for
adults.”

Today the Obama administration hosted the
first-ever White House Conference on Drug Policy Reform. But don’t
be confused: Although “drug policy reform” usually means moving
away from the use of violence to stop people from consuming
arbitrarily proscribed psychoactive substances, that is not what
President Obama has in mind.

“Drug policy reform should be rooted in neuroscience, not
political science,” says Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, in the
email message announcing the conference. “It should be a public
health issue, not just a criminal justice issue. That’s what a
21st-century approach to drug policy looks like.”  

In truth, this 21st-century approach to drug policy looks a lot
like the 20th-century approach to drug policy. Kerlikowske, who is
still upset that he does not get credit for ending
the war on drugs when he took office in 2009, thinks
enlightenment in this area means forcing
drug users into “treatment” by threatening them with jail rather
than sending them directly to jail. He needs the heavy hand of the
state not only to impose treatment on recalcitrant drug users but
to imprison people who supply them with the drugs they want. That
is why Kerlikowske says drug policy is “not just a
criminal justice issue”—because he cannot imagine a drug policy
that does not entail locking people in cages for actions that
violate no one’s rights, whether those actions involve using
politically disfavored intoxicants or helping people do so.

Patrick Kennedy, co-founder of the anti-pot group Project SAM, likewise tries to
distract attention from the half a million Americans imprisoned for
drug offenses. “For too long drug policy has been caught in between
the false dichotomy of legalization versus incarceration,” Kennedy
says in a press release about the White House conference, where he
co-chaired a panel. The alternative to legalization is continued
prohibition, which requires incarceration. Prohibitionists like
Kennedy and Kerlikowske should have the courage to defend stripping
people of their liberty for doing nothing more than supplying a
product to eager buyers. Instead they pretend this is not
happening.

As for Kerlikowske’s claim that he seeks to depoliticize drug
policy, that is impossible as long as the government tries to
dictate what people put into their bodies. How can such an endeavor
be anything but political? The Obama administration, for example,
is committed to
defending the position that marijuana, which the Drug
Enforcement Administration’s chief administrative law judge once
called
“the safest therapeutically active substance known to man,” has a
high potential for abuse, lacks medical value, and cannot be used
safely even under a doctor’s supervision. This is Kerlikowske’s
idea of sound science.

Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy
Project,
argues that Kerlikowske’s avowed respect for neuroscience is
also belied by his continued support for a policy that encourages
people to use a more dangerous intoxicant instead of marijuana.
“Every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it poses far
less harm to the brain than alcohol,” says Tvert, co-author of
Marijuana
Is Safer. “The ONDCP has long championed laws that steer
adults toward using alcohol and away from making the safer choice
to use marijuana. If the drug czar is truly committed to
prioritizing neuroscience over political science, he should support
efforts to make marijuana a legal alternative to alcohol for
adults.”

• Another glitch in
  Healthcare.gov: It’s
  routing applicants to Medicaid, even when they’re not qualified for
  that program, and threatening to leave them without any
  coverage at all.
• Edward Snowden will
  give evidence about spying to the European Parliament, despite
  much huffing and puffing by British Conservatives.
• Former San Diego Mayor and serial-groper Bob Filner was
  sentenced to
  90 days of home confinement—including his entire apartment
  complex—and $1,500 in fines for charges including felony false
  imprisonment and misdemeanor battery. Stay away from the pool,
  folks.
• Iran’s foreign minister says the long-awaited nuclear deal
  hammered out in Geneva is off the table
  if the U.S. imposes new sanctions.
• An FBI probe into jail misconduct led to the
  arrest of at least three Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials
  so far, with more busts expected.
• Bitcoin—it’s not just for cyberanarchists, any more. The
  virtual currency is
  gaining an increasingly mainstream following. Not that there’s
  anything wrong with cyberanarchists.
• Catch Reason’s own Matt Welch on
  The Independents, a new roundtable discussion TV program
  emphasizing economic and civil liberties. It’s hosted by
  Reason.tv’s Lisa Kennedy Montgomery (Kennedy), also features Kmele
  Foster, and debuts tonight on FOX Business Network at 9pm ET.

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