biden, drugs, abortion, and ALL CAPS

[candid]

I am hearing lots of complaints about Palin's positions on gay marriage and abortion. The first one I have a lot of trouble getting worked up about, as "should gay people be allowed to get married?" is not in my list of "top 100 crucial public policy issues". The second is indeed an unfortunate position.

HOWEVER, Joe Biden is SO BAD ON DRUGS.

Comments

[anonymous]

whatever, druggie.

-the late, unlamented fidelity_astro, who follows you on google reader and is totally voting for obama

[rinku]

three things i thought of

[evilegg]

Aborted babies will never smoke pot, so they should just learn to embrace that fact and count aborted fetuses as a win in the War on Drugs.

[malathion]

I know next to nothing about Biden's political positions, and don't care either because Obama will not die in office.

Critics of the drug war should be falling over themselves to vote for Obama.

[phanatic]

I'm sorry, has Obama indicated that he'll be seeking to end the War on Drugs? What steps has he announced that he'll be taking to reform our drug laws and end neo-prohibition?

[malathion]

You are a google search away from the truth. If you genuinely gave a shit and weren't just arguing because you like to, you would already know.

[perich]

Would it have killed you to link to whichever URL you think ends the argument? Because here's the most recent and relevant entry I found for "obama war on drugs" (March 2008):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kurt-schmoke/obama-not-completely-sile_b_103122.html

Obama: "I think it's time we also took a hard look at the wisdom of locking up some first-time, non-violent drug users for decades. Someone once said that '...long minimum sentences for first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from their disease.' That someone was George W. Bush - six years ago. I don't say this very often, but I agree with the president. The difference is, he hasn't done anything about it. When I'm president, I will."

That's an almost comical obliviousness to irony on Obama's part. Or the audience's, for not laughing him off the stage.

[the_xtina]

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/pressroom/pressrelease/pr082708.cfm

?

[candid]

see comment below

[rosefox]

Biden isn't all bad and might be getting better, according to the Drug Policy Alliance. And Obama is hardly anti-Drug War, but he's also admitted to using drugs and is big on treatment. That's probably the best we can hope for from any major party candidate right now.

[candid]

The examples in that press release indicate that

(1) Biden thinks that black people and white people should suffer the SAME draconian penalties for using cocaine, and
(2) Biden co-sponsored a bill that makes it legal for doctors to prescribe Buprenorphine outside of traditional "methadone clinic" settings, just as long as they first take an 8-hour course and then apply for a special waiver, at which point they are "allowed" to "treat" up to 30 addicts (and if they beg for permission, up to 100).

The fact that these were the best two examples that the DPA could come up with just reinforces my point.

--

My point was not so much that the other three candidates are pro-legalization, but that PUNISHING PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS is and has been one of Joe Biden's pet causes for the last several decades, and (your linked press release aside) I see no indication of any change in his sentiments, and THIS MAKES HIM A DISGUSTING, REPREHENSIBLE HUMAN BEING.

(And then there's his views on IP.)