This Is Your Government on Drugs

It sounds a bit like the answer to one of those old late night, "so whatever happened to..." questions. Tommy Chong, 65-year-old grandfather, the lesser-known half of the goofy late-70s burnout comedy duo Cheech and Chong, was convicted of the illegal sale of drug paraphernalia over the Internet (i.e. he marketed a line of glass bongs). In a bit of priceless comedic irony, the investigation was code-named Operation Pipe Dreams. Chong was sentenced to 9 months in prison on the second anniversary of September 11.

Chong, with no prior arrests, is an unlikely figure to wind up in prison for rarely enforced paraphernalia laws. However, much to his misfortune, he does have one asset that the Bush administration's Justice Department covets in spades. He's got a high profile. Chong's takedown was meant to send a message to every stoner in America. Dude, you cannot wink at The Man.

Even as issues like Iraq, gay marriage and the environment command greater attention, the Bush administration has renewed the war on drugs. In this faith-based administration, the drug war is the ur-"values" war, the blueprint for the conservative kulturkampf. In fact, the drug war is even more ancient than most people realize. Temperance as a movement emerged in the early 1800's as drinking, previously considered healthful and a basic component of life, was identified with social disorder. It quickly became an issue of hearth, home and morality.

Long before Bill Bennett gambled away his virtue book profits and before Richard Nixon, the first President to proclaim a "war on drugs," was born, the battle between the Wets and Drys was a defining political issue in America. From the 1880s until the end of prohibition, Americans endured fifty years of pitched battle over the drug alcohol. It's worth remembering that the drug war gave us not one but two Constitutional amendments: one banning alcohol, then another un-banning it. Despite alcohol's decisive win, or rather because of it, the battle moved to other fronts.

In 2000, no sane person following drug policy would have suggested that within three years Tommy Chong would be imprisoned for selling paraphernalia. The trends of the 90s were decidedly favorable for reform. Between 1996 and 2000, voters passed 17 reform-oriented ballot initiatives on subjects as diverse as medical marijuana, limiting asset forfeiture abuse, and treatment instead of incarceration. New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a Republican, called for legalization of marijuana and ultimately passed a range of reform measures. According to the Drug Policy Alliance (where I was formerly the director of National Affairs), 46 states passed 150 notable drug policy reforms between 1996 and 2002. Countries throughout the world, including close allies such as Britain and Australia began to experiment with reform, often going much farther than the U.S. without appearing to suffer especially ill effects.

As a candidate for President, George W. Bush looked rather moderate on drug issues. In October of 1999, he answered a question from CNN about medical marijuana by stating that "I believe each state can choose that decision as they so choose." Later, after his election, he said "I think a lot of people are coming to the realization that maybe long minimum sentences for first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from their disease." However, the arc of the drug war under Bush veered towards emphasizing morality and punitive policies within months of his inauguration.

Bush Gives Drugs to the Far Right

Drug Czar John Walters is perhaps the key element in this equation. In the 1980s, Walters served as an Assistant to then-Secretary of Education Bill Bennett and then as Bennett's chief of staff at ONDCP when Bennett became the first cabinet-level drug czar. Walters left ONDCP in 1993 and became a bitter critic of President Clinton's drug policies. Prior to his return as ONDCP's director, he solidified his standing in Republican circles as the President of the Philanthropy Roundtable, a far right-wing non-profit funded by the Olin, Scaife and Bradley Foundations and the New Citizenship Project, whose goal is to promote religion in public life. Thus, he is not a neo-con but more of an old-line Bill Bennett values maven. Walters is in touch with his inner kulturkampfer.