Pubdate: Fri, 08 Feb 2013
Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright: 2013 The Commercial Appeal
Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm
Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Bartholomew Sullivan

COHEN PITCHES TO OBAMA TO END WAR ON DRUGS

President Says He'll Consider It

WASHINGTON - Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen said he asked President 
Barack Obama to reconsider pursuing a war on drugs when the president 
engaged in a question-and-answer session Thursday at the Democrats' 
congressional retreat.

Cohen said he was the first to ask a question at the Lansdowne Resort 
in the Northern Virginia suburbs west of the capital. The president's 
initial remarks to the gathering were transcribed by the White House 
but not the question-and-answer session.

"First, I said I'm happy you're re-elected and you're going to serve 
a second term. I couldn't be happier. And that I'm glad we're getting 
out of our second longest war, in Afghanistan," Cohen said by phone.

Quoting himself, he continued: "What I want to talk to you about is 
our longest war, and that's the war on drugs, which has been a 
failure, and it's cost us a lot in money and a lot in the lives of 
people in prison."

Cohen said the lengthy question also included his acknowledgment that 
the president has made prosecutions of recreational marijuana users a 
low priority. But he said he urged the president to "tamp down" the 
war, "which has had a disparate impact on African Americans ..."

Cohen said the president responded by saying "he understood it and he 
said they're going to do something in this term. They will study it 
and look at it, and look at it more in terms of a health issue and 
look at medical marijuana as a lower priority.

"He did say he had to enforce the laws we pass, which was kind of - 
it's true but it's a cop out because there are priorities they can 
take ... Indictments they seek and the raids they pursue are choices."

Cohen has been a longtime critic of the expense of the war on drugs 
and its impact on the lives of those caught up in it. He introduced a 
bill in 2011 that would have permitted states to legalize marijuana, 
which is still illegal to possess under federal law.

On Friday, the Democratic lawmakers are to hear from former President 
Bill Clinton.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom