Preparing The Ground

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey says the Drug War is a failure. He wants to put first timers caught up in Prohibition into rehab for up to a year. Forced anything is not what I would call a conservative position. But it is a start. Especially for Christian Democrats (Republicans).

And then from the secular side of the Democrat Party we are getting this: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated her support for medical marijuana on Wednesday. She said that Democrats might make changes to federal law after the election. Well of course – no promises.

Hmm.

And then some international news: Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto called for a “new debate” on the drug war and said the United States must play an important role in that discussion. He is supposed to be the next President of Mexico. It is thought that he will make an unofficial deal with the Drug Cartels to stop a major portion of the Drug War violence In Mexico.

And then there is full legalization which will be on the ballot in two and possibly three states in November.

Then there was the US News debate on ending the Drug War.

The New York Times chimes in. Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War.

The Obama FY’13 budget also gives some hints.

The presidential request for the FY13 budget deals a mortal blow to the helicopter-powered marijuana eradication umbrella. It does so by cutting in half the funding for the U.S. National Guard Counterdrug program, the Defense Department’s contribution to the marijuan-eradication effort that has, for the past 20 years, limited the size of domestic marijuana patches and increased the demand for “blood pot” imported by ultraviolent Mexican drug cartels—while doing nothing to stem the supply to anyone who wants to get high.

Until now, the DEA and state law enforcement could count on the National Guard to fly hundreds of helicopter hours over national forests and other public land, where growers became active following the passage of property-seizure laws in the Reagan years—but the FY13 budget changes that.

The 50-percent cut is not being apportioned evenly across the states—it’s a two-thirds cut in Oregon and a 70-percent cut in Kentucky, while the Southern border states are receiving less severe reductions in funding. It’s essentially a diversion of Defense Department assets away from the interior American marijuana fields to where the national-security risk is greatest: along our Southern border.

It looks to me like the Drug War is going to be an issue in the Presidential Campaign. Which leads me to believe that Romney will pick Rand Paul as his VP in a defensive move.