Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Targets in the drug war

You know the "drug war" could actually transform when even Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes about liberalization and a new focus on demand rather than just supply. She interviewed former Secretary of State George Schultz. He even notes approvingly of the report earlier this year from former presidents Zedillo, Gaviria, and Cardoso that made similar recommendations. I am glad to see that report retain some life.

This has a similar flavor to Cuba policy. After years of disastrously failed policies, conservative Republicans begin to shift their positions. The issue can then be framed in terms (particularly security) that appeal to Republicans and thereby made politically palatable. The process is slow, but once some diehard conservatives are on board, change is all but inevitable.

3 comments:

boz 8:11 AM  

O'Grady has long been in the pro-legalization camp.

Greg Weeks 8:20 AM  

Has she? I haven't really paid attention. Regardless, the sense of the policy being a failure is slowly spreading.

Justin Delacour 10:07 AM  

O'Grady has long been in the pro-legalization camp.

Indeed, just like William F. Buckley Jr. before her. This isn't really news. George Shultz has been moving away from conventional Republican positions for years.

After years of disastrously failed policies, conservative Republicans begin to shift their positions.

A handful of conservative Republicans have shifted their positions. The rest --i.e. the vast majority-- would cast any such conversion by the Democrats as a noodle-necked policy of hippy insanity, so we're not likely to see any substantive shift.

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