With less than two months left before the next U.S. president is elected, ScienceBlogs wanted to dedicate a space to campaign politics. A Vote For Science is a group blog that will focus on the candidates' science policies. It is 
The many, many issues related to public policy on drugs of abuse have been mostly AWOL in this presidential campaign. Especially lately. Nevertheless a few clues may be obtained regarding the positions of McCain and Obama on several critical topics.
First off, let us recognize that the political landscape has changed over the past 30 years. Chris Matthews has a review in a piece that ends with a key Obama quote:
For substance, we might as well start with the overview from On the Issues. They have gleaned a few key positions staked out by the Presidential contenders.
John McCain:
* Mexico should extradite drug dealers to the US. (Mar 2007)
* Administration is AWOL on the war on drugs. (Mar 2000)
* Public/private partnerships for drug treatment. (Jan 2000)
* Prevention & education apply to alcohol as well as marijuana. (Oct 1999)
* We're losing drug war - just say no. (Oct 1999)
* $1B for detection equipment for more border interdiction. (Mar 1999)
* Mexico: balancing act between free trade & stopping drugs. (Mar 1999)
* Restrict methadone treatment programs. (Feb 1999)
* Stricter penalties; stricter enforcement. (Jul 1998)
* Voted YES on spending international development funds on drug control. (Jul 1996)
* Sponsored bill on drug testing for major league sports. (May 2005)
* Sponsored bill for grants to Indian tribes to fight meth. (Dec 2006)
Barack Obama:
* Look at needle exchange; and expand treatment. (Feb 2008)
* Fight to rid our communities of meth. (Feb 2008)
* Expand drug courts; help prisoners with substance abuse. (Feb 2008)
* 2001: questions harsh penalties for drug dealing. (Oct 2007)
* Not first candidate to use drugs, but first honest about it. (Oct 2007)
* Do not lower drinking age from 21 to 18. (Sep 2007)
* Experimented with cocaine but turned down heroin. (Aug 2007)
* A "secret smoker", especially around reporters. (Aug 2007)
* Smokes cigarettes now; smoked some pot in high school. (Feb 2007)
* Admitted marijuana use in high school & college. (Jan 2007)
* Deal with street-level drug dealing as minimum-wage affair. (Oct 2006)
* Understand why youngsters want to use drugs. (Aug 1996)
* End harsher sentencing for crack vs. powder cocaine. (Jun 2007)
* Require chemical resellers to certify against meth use. (Sep 2007)
Go read because they have lists for Vice-Presidential nominees Biden and Palin as well as the fringe candidates.
What else do we have? Well, here's McCain responding reasonably thoughtfully on the law enforcement side:
Obama, ditto:
Oh, and do you remember the primary season? When all the contenders were ambushed by medical marijuana advocates?
Those wacky Granite staters get McCain:
Those wacky Granite staters front Obama:
Politics
Comments
I have to admit, I'm of two minds on the harder drugs. I think the softer drugs should be legalized and regulated in the way alcohol and tobacco are, based on the idea that the risks posed by illegal drugs are greater than the risks posed by legalized and regulated drugs.
The dangers of these most concentrated, addictive drugs are even more pronounced, and I don't know if there is a way to bring them safely into a legalized form. Part of me wonders if government operated centers the provided strictly controlled yet dirt cheap drugs in a controlled environment and free rehabilitation opportunities might be able to reduce the dangers these drugs pose both to individuals and society as a whole.
However, I don't know if people would actually use such facilities if they existed; cheap safe drugs would encourage people to use them, the loss of freedom and pleasure from the uncontrolled use of drugs might just keep the illegal trade going strong.
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox | October 14, 2008 9:17 AM
The dangers of these most concentrated, addictive drugs are even more pronounced, and I don't know if there is a way to bring them safely into a legalized form.
Really? How do you know this? How do you define a "harder" and "softer" drug anyway?
By most accounts alcohol and tobacco use and addiction cause vastly more problems for human health, morbidity, mortality, etc than any other recreational drug. Cannabis dependence affects far more people than does dependence on any other class of illicit recreational drug because of the huge population of users.
Posted by: DrugMonkey | October 14, 2008 2:01 PM
In my opinion, marijuana should become legal because, in the words of a DEA buddy of mine, "dope smoking hippies just aren't violent."
I would say the *use* of harder drugs should be decriminalized and addressed through court-ordered rehab. A heroin addict, after all, is just as much a victim of the drug trade as the people who's lives he/she affects. In other words, arrest them and make them go to treatment, but don't ruin their lives by making them sit in jail at taxpayer expense for five years just because they've made bad choices.
What this means is that police would target drug dealers and smugglers rather than their victims.
Posted by: woodstein312 | October 14, 2008 9:43 PM
Particulate pollution from burning and mining coal kills 60,000 Americans a year. Why waste your time with pot smokers when you can win big by stopping the smoking of coal?
Posted by: llewelly | October 15, 2008 4:08 AM
In my opinion, marijuana should become legal because, in the words of a DEA buddy of mine, "dope smoking hippies just aren't violent."
Of course, this sort of rationale is focused on a single domain of harm. A substantial part of the rationale for limiting access to potential consumer products has to do with a health risk to the individual who uses as intended.
Posted by: DrugMonkey | October 15, 2008 2:27 PM
I'm not sure where I stand on drug/meth legalization. I'd like to see antibiotics treated as schedule drugs, and their use strictly controlled. Misuse of antibiotics has the potential to kill millions more than have already succumbed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. I'd like to see triclosan banned because it can actually increase the likelihood of generating drug-resistant bacteria. I think marijuana should be legalized, because I don't think it does any more harm to the user/abuser than alcohol or tobacco, and as long as those two substances are legal, I can't see any reason to put marijuana in a separate category. I think that opiates should be less strictly regulated in spite of the risk of addiction, because that risk doesn't outweigh the benefits of those who can get relief from acute or chronic pain with opiates.
As for methamphetamine, I just don't know. I unwittingly married a methamphetamine addict, and I spent 5 1/2 years in hell until I figured out what was going on (If you aren't raised around addicts, you don't pick up on the subtle signs that someone a substance abuser). Maybe I'd like to see methamphetamine and crack addicts drawn and quartered. Maybe I'd like to see them shipped off to a penal colony on an inhospitable island, sort of like Australia once was. I don't think that legalizing methamphetamine and/or crack cocaine would mitigate the social costs of addiction. Nor do I think that those who use methamphetamine or crack cocaine deserve diversion to detox and treatment programs, but I don't know what the best answer for society as a whole would be.
Posted by: Lisa | October 19, 2008 4:58 AM
First of all, methamphetamine is legal right now. It's a prescription drug, called Desoxyn. So your question is moot.
On the issue of cannabis, it is benign, and the only people who may be dependent are those who presumably benefit from it medically.
Posted by: Mahakal | October 19, 2008 8:29 PM
A prudent epiphany has just bestowed on me. Have a Legilization of meth, BUT let legimate institutions with skilled and trained MD licenses prepare and parse the crytillized drug for safe quanties of shipping, and specifically sell the elixer to euphoria to the homeless so they can get on with their lives. Under professional supervision I'd stack my odds on favorite that it would be a boon to the poverty proliferation, and in safe dosages would improve the chronically depressed from commiting suicide, living in transiency, destitution and dispair. It's well due time for a radicalistic change on societal's narrow minded thrall of oppression.
Posted by: Jonathan McKenna | June 24, 2009 5:04 PM