Mandatory anything is not my idea of a conservative position. But his acknowledgement of failure is a start.WASHINGTON -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has become the latest leader to condemn the now 40-year-old war on drugs.
"The war on drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a failure," Christie said Monday during a speech at The Brookings Institution. "We're warehousing addicted people everyday in state prisons in New Jersey, giving them no treatment."
Christie stressed the merits of legislation recently passed by New Jersey state lawmakers that institutes a year of mandatory treatment for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders instead of jail time. The mandatory treatment program, slated to be put in place in at least three counties during its first year, will eventually expand statewide over the next five years.
Christie, one of the few Republican lawmakers to actively speak out against the effects of America's drug war policies, sought to put a conservative moral spin on his position.
"If you're pro-life, as I am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb," he said. "Every life is precious and every one of God's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't if we ignore them."
Perhaps to blunt conservative criticism of the cost of such a program to the state, Christie argued in favor of the economics of drug treatment over incarceration.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/0 ... 59687.html
I do believe prohibition is going to be an issue in the fall and both sides are preparing the ground.
If both sides take the same position the issue is off he table and then economics will be the issue.