Pubdate: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2009 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: Vincent Carroll Cited: The Rocky Mountain Foundation http://www.therockymountainfoundation.org/ TANCREDO'S NEXT CRUSADE? What do you talk about at lunch with Tom Tancredo? I thought I knew, but to my surprise (and relief), we spent much of the hour discussing the wisdom of legalizing drugs rather than rehashing our disagreements over illegal immigrants. "The status quo isn't working," Tancredo says, meaning the war on drugs has failed -- spectacularly. And while that's hardly a novel insight, most people who reach it don't take the next step of questioning the drug war itself. Consumption of virtually all major illegal drugs in this country has remained steady in recent years, Tancredo points out, citing figures from the Brookings Institute. Farcically, the war on drugs hasn't even curtailed supplies to the point of substantially driving up prices. In fact, the price of cocaine has reportedly tanked over the past two decades. Meanwhile -- and you already know this from a slew of news reports -- the ferocity of international drug cartels is simply breathtaking. Cartel-related violence and terror -- including beheadings and torture right out of al-Qaeda's playbook -- snuffed out 6,000 or so lives last year in Mexico alone, with 1,600 murders just in Ciudad Juarez. Tancredo worries about this corruption seeping northward if we don't de-fund the drug lords by legalizing at least some narcotics. Ah, so that's it, Tancredo bashers will surely say: His obsession with illegal immigration and the supposedly baleful influence of Mexico is always at the foundation of his motives. They'd have a plausible case, too, except that the former congressman distanced himself from this nation's drug war long before his name became synonymous with border security. Back in the early 1990s, for example, I recall him speaking out against police abuse of asset forfeiture laws aimed at fighting drug trafficking. Gung-ho drug warriors almost never did that. For that matter, why shouldn't he worry about the corrupting influence of the drug cartels when even the Justice Department calls them "the greatest organized crime threat" to this country? Although Tancredo has never been a drug-war enthusiast, he's taking his skepticism to a new level with the recent opening of The Rocky Mountain Foundation. Besides energy policy and immigration, one of this fledgling think tank's main concerns will apparently be decrediting the war on drugs. The foundation will have its work cut out for it, of course, given the reluctance of most public officials to even grant arguments for legalization a respectful hearing. Tancredo says he's personally "gone back and forth on the legalization of the hard stuff" and doubts that he'd favor it in Colorado (I certainly wouldn't). But why not let individual states decide, he asks, and then enforce their own drug laws? Aren't states supposed to be this nation's "laboratories of democracy"? Good questions. The alternative to reining in the war on drugs is to adopt the position of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Declare the decades-long campaign a thoroughgoing failure, apologize for the United States' role in sustaining a huge demand for these illicit goods, and then pledge to do more of the same in enforcement. Einstein once said that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I'm far from the first to apply that observation to the America's never-ending war on drugs -- but then there's a very good reason that it so readily comes to mind. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake