How can local and state authorities overcome the threat implicit in that fact?
SBM: Don’t make it a liberal issue; make it a conservative one. It is, pure and simple, a nanny state—big federal government, wasteful spending, no states’ rights issues. True Democrats should love it, and true Republicans should hate it. LL: Obviously, if you had a magic wand, you’d wave it and make a few changes. If you could literally rewrite American drug policy overnight, what would it look like tomorrow morning? SBM: 1. States decide the drug laws that are best for them; 2. People have a constitutional right to decide what goes into their bodies; 3. People, not objects, are judged harshly for their actions that directly hurt or endanger others. It’s cynical to say so, but I also suspect it’s all too true that Sheriff Masters’ suggestions make too much sense for the authorities to suddenly adopt. Too many agencies have become dependent on the money they get from forfeitures based on drugs or the accusations of drugs (something Masters addresses in his book Drug War Addiction). At
