Howard Dean on the Drug War

from Marin for Howard Dean in 2004
http://www.marinfordean.org/article_text.asp?articleid=194

War on Drugs

Public Health Problem

Dean maintains he doesn't "believe the war on drugs is a criminal
matter; it's a public health matter. To throw users in jail is silly."
But he cannot stand state initiatives that seek to legalize medical
marijuana. "I hate the idea of legislators and politicians practicing
medicine," he says. Should the Feds be busting medical marijuana
clubs? "Depends on the circumstances," he says. "In general, no." If
he were President, Dean adds, he would force the Food and Drug
Administration to evaluate medical marijuana, and he would be prepared
to accept its findings.

Source: The Nation


"I am in favor of really hammering dealers. You know they are
merchants of death and destruction and misery. I believe the rest of
the drug problem the casual users is a public health problem, not a
criminal problem, and we ought to approach it using a medical model."

"I particularly like something we're starting to experiment with in
Vermont and which is further along in some states which is drug courts
where when drugs are the problem the court has wide discretion to
sentence people to rehabilitation. As a physician I was trained as a
physician you know, sentencing people to rehabilitation when they
quote-unquote didn't want to go was something that you didn't do, but
you know now I think the drug problem is so serious that it's smarter
frankly to send casual users of serious drugs to rehab rather than
jail. And it's cheaper in the long run. Even though they will fail
rehabilitation three or four or five times, that's what you have to
understand about substance abusers. From a medical point of view, as a
physician, and also as a governor, I think we ought to treat drug
abuse a public health problem.

"I'm not in favor of decriminalizing drugs. The reason is it sends a
very bad message I think to young people, we already have a serious
problem with the drugs that are legal, alcohol and tobacco, and adding
a third drug, a series of drugs, is not a good idea. But I do think we
ought to use a medical model and not a criminal model for most cases."

Source: StoptheDrugWar.com


Medical Marijuana

Gov. Howard Dean (D) signed legislation setting up a state task force
to study how Vermont should go about protecting medical marijuana
patients from arrest.