Sarah Palin thinks pot is a “minimal problem” and that in general cops ought to find more important things to worry about.
Sarah Palin thinks pot is a “minimal problem” and that cops should focus their attention elsewhere. Hardly an original thought – big-city cops figured this out a couple of decades ago – but it’s news when a Republican contender for the White House fails to swear allegiance to the War on Drugs.
Footnote The video is really astounding. Aside from the pot comment (around minute 13), Palin and Ron Paul are mostly predictable – catch Ron Paul on how “the market” would have prevented the BP spill – but Fox Business “reporters” seem to be even more insane than Fox News “reporters.” The inteviewer, identified as “Judge” Andrew Napolitano, asks a question encouraging his guests to endorse nullification.
I was also a bit surprised when Palin sats quietly as Ron Paul denounced the PATRIOT Act and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps her support for the war effort expired with the Beloved Leader’s term?
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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Shorter Ron Paul: Unlike private corporations, government lacks the proper incentives to prevent disasters like the one caused in the Gulf by a private corporation. (Okay, it was originally Shorter David Bernstein. But still…)
Why the quote marks around the word judge? Andrew Napolitano served for eight years as a trial court judge in New Jersey.
I think you're right about Palin's stance on marijuana being a watershed moment in American politics. I wonder if her position is mainstream. Does the average American think cannabis should be illegal, but drug enforcement should de-prioritize it? Or that sentences for possession should be reduced? Is this the end of the war on drugs?