NEWS: Kerry No Friend to Pot Legalisation

Really? Howard Dean told me in the plainest language possible that he did not think that nonviolent drug offenders should go to jail. "I mean, if you're selling heroin in a school zone, that's maybe something you should go to jail for, but otherwise, it's a medical issue," he said.

Dean explained to me that since most drug laws were state laws, his likely strategy as president for clearing the prisons would be to provide block grants to states that develop alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders.

What kind of people were you likely to find on the Dean plane? A lot of ex-Clinton types, true, but also people like Kurt Schmoke, the former Yale classmate of Dean's and mayor of Baltimore, who once called the Drug War "our domestic Vietnam" and was the first major politician in the country to advocate the decriminalization of drugs.

Who would you find hanging around the Kerry campaign? Forget about people like Weiner, who just showed up uninvited. One of the constants of the Kerry plane was a guy named David Morehouse, who is a senior political advisor to Kerry. Morehouse, like Weiner, is a former ONDCP heavy. He was once the number-two man in the agency behind Barry McCaffrey. Just a few days after Super Tuesday, he explained to me with pride that he had been involved with the planning of many of the ONDCP's most celebrated p.r. campaigns.

"Like the fried-egg thing?" I said.

"Well, yes, the fried-egg thing, and some others," he said.

Morehouse said he left the ONDCP before the plan to plant hidden anti-drug messages in the scripts of tv shows like Friends and E.R. went into action, but admitted he had been there during the planning of these programs.

These are the kinds of people Kerry hangs out with: the fried-egg guy.

And how about Kerry's likely replacement for Tom Ridge? Rand Beers, Kerry's Homeland Security advisor, is one of the most zealous and remorseless narcs in American history. As undersecretary of state for international drug enforcement under Clinton, Beers signed off on a defoliating program in South America in which a substance similar to Agent Orange was sprayed over would-be coca fields along the Colombian-Ecuadorian border. When an environmental group filed suit on behalf of Ecuadorian peasants who claimed—with the support of the Red Cross—that the sprays had caused the destruction of all crops as well as severe birth defects in humans and livestock, Beers responded by insinuating that the plaintiffs had ties to al Qaeda through the Colombian FARC rebels.

Instapundit links to Yuppies From Zion who relies on a Matt Taibi article to claim Kerry will be tougher than Bush on drug offenses.

We disagree--we've been reporting on Kerry's (and all the Democratic candidates' positions on drug offenses and crime for the past two years on Talkleft. Here's a quick recap on Kerry:

Kerry voted "No" on increasing penalties for drug offenses (Nov 1999). The amendment he voted against would have specifically targeted the manufacturing or trafficking of amphetamines & methamphetamines and possession of powder cocaine, and set stronger penalties for dealing drugs. He voted "No" on spending international development funds on drug control. (Jul 1996) In 1994, he voted against mandatory minimum penalties for firearms offenses committed during the course of a drug crime.

He would end Ashcroft's raids on medical marijuana patients and providers.

Here are more of Kerry's views on marijuana. See also here.

As to John Edwards, check this out :

And, don't forget, Kerry opposes the death penalty, except for foreign terrorists; He has called for a federal moratorium on the death penalty pending further study; and he advocates DNA testing for every inmate facing execution.

So, don't believe it. Kerry is not going to be worse than Bush and Ashcroft on the drug war--or on crime.

In short: Kerry would stop the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raids on seriously ill medical marijuana patients as president. Kerry has previously said he favors federal legislation to allow people with cancer, AIDS, and other serious illnesses to have medical marijuana, with their doctors' approval.