In his own words:
For years, I served as a federal prosecutor and member of the House of Representatives defending the federal pursuit of the drug prohibition.
Today, I can reflect on my efforts and see no progress in stopping the widespread use of drugs. I’ll even argue that America’s drug problem is larger today than it was when Richard Nixon first coined the phrase, “War on Drugs,” in 1972.
America’s drug problem is only compounded by the vast amounts of money directed at this ongoing battle. In 2005, more than $12 billion dollars was spent on federal drug enforcement efforts while another $30 billion was spent to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders.
The result of spending all of those taxpayer’s dollars? We now have a huge incarceration tab for non-violent drug offenders and, at most, a 30% interception rate of hard drugs. We are also now plagued with the meth labs that are popping up like poisonous mushrooms across the country.
While it is clear the War on Drugs has been a failure, it is not enough to simply acknowledge that reality. We need to look for solutions that deal with the drug problem without costly and intrusive government agencies, and instead allow for private industry and organizations to put forward solutions that address the real problems.
I am not sure what exactly Bob Barr will have to do to atone for all his sins in the eyes of the more liberal readers here, but I will note that Barr has been making a lot of sense the past few years. This libertarian thing has done him a lot of good.
NCProsecutor
That’s pretty wild stuff right there. Wow.
cleek
for starters, he has to promise to stay the fuck away from anyone thinking of voting Dem in November.
dan robinson
I wonder if you can get that libertarian thing in a rinse? That way, these guys can use it in the shower after a conservative shampoo and it will tame some of their wild hair ideas.
Davebo
Siphoning off a few million votes from McCain come November would be a good start.
But seriously, as with you John, better late than never. And it’s not like either of you are now marrying boxturtles so clearly we have much more work to do.
Dreggas
Yes, those meth labs need to become a privately run industry subject to OSHA inspections as well as Quality Control. And no this is not snark.
4tehlulz
If it’s for personal consumption, could we homebrew our own meth?
Otto Man
Bob sure has changed. I think there was something in that cheese Borat fed him.
Zifnab
I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying…
demimondian
Hmmm.
You know, it’s not so much what he says, but what he hasn’t said. Saying “Workers are routinely oppressed by their employers, who would gladly sacrifice their lives and health for a buck” would be a good thing to say. Saying “It is our responsibility to provide every child with the opportunity to obtain a good education” would help, too. Saying “Financial and consumer markets require regulation to protect individuals from scammers of all stripes” is also important to me.
But, you see, he’s a libertarian, not a liberal. And that’s my problem with him.
calipygian
Bob Barr withheld the couple of hundred bucks it would of cost Washington DC to tally the votes that would have allowed medical marijuana in DC.
Fuck Bob Barr. Sideways. With a chainsaw.
That stripper titty licking, hypocritical motherfucker.
NR
Comments like these make it a lot more likely that he’ll take votes from Obama.
mantis
Sounds all nice and rational to me until the end,
We need to look for solutions that deal with the drug problem without costly and intrusive government agencies, and instead allow for private industry and organizations to put forward solutions that address the real problems.
Private industry? For what, all the profit in treating dead-broke addicts that is just waiting to be snatched up?
No, you have decriminalize and take all the money spent by police, the courts, and the prison system to catch, try, and imprison non-violent drug offenders and put it into treatment and prevention. That will still involve big government agencies, but it will cost less and the recidivism of non-violent drug users to violent ex-cons will decrease dramatically. Sorry Bob, this is not a private industry problem. It’s a government problem.
Tom Hilton
Take 6%-8% off the top of McCain’s total in November, and throw at least a couple of states to Obama.
Seriously, though: I’m glad Barr has seen the light on some issues, and I’m glad he’s a potential spoiler for the Republicans, but his ideology is still fundamentally incompatible with a lot of the basics of liberalism.
Max Power
… Solutions like what for example? Any ideas Bob?
Sure the war on drugs has been a losing proposition, but tired libertarian boilerplate isn’t an alternative. He sounds like he wants to outsource the war on drugs to Halliburton.
The Moar You Know
LOL WUT?
Max Power
(I agree with Mantis)
cleek
i assume your remark puts some kind of jinx into effect.
to undo it, you need to knock on wood and shout your mother’s middle name three times.
Zifnab
Hurray! Out with intrusive and oppressive government agencies. In with intrusive and oppressive corporate agencies. I can’t wait for the Brown Shirts of America, Inc to come knocking on my door to ask about the meth lab I may or may not have in my basement.
Yes, I’ll give Barr points for noticing the obvious (the whole Epic Fail thing). But I’m docking them all back when his solution seems to consist of doing nothing and hoping rich people fix the mess.
You need a program. Drugs A, B, and C should still be illegal. Drugs X, Y, and Z should be legalized but regulated. Crime M is a ticketable offense. Crime N gets you a year in jail. Crime O and P shouldn’t be crimes at all.
Simply throwing up your hands and saying, “We’ll let the free market decide” isn’t an answer. It’s dodging the question.
Libertarian Fail.
SnarkyShark
Yep, thats what it sounds like. Blackwater can do the interdiction stuff, and Halliburton can build the
execution chamberstreatment centers.The drug war has always been about punishing the DFH’s. Keeping Glaxo in the Valium business was just sweet sweet pie!
Getting rid of the idiots who can’t get past 1968 would be a start. On the Democratic side a lot of those people were in the Hillary campaign, so there you go.
FearItself
Conservatives who go libertarian always start to sound better. Liberals who go libertarian, on the other hand, start to sound worse. So, no surprise here.
b. hussein canuckistani
I’m too late to get in on the ground floor of “what is private industry going to do”, but I thought this comment was a win.
Rosali
Strongly advocate for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Go on every TV program and talk about nothing but impeachment. Say that we need a new president who will restore dignity and respect for the law to the office.
The Other Steve
And there’s why Libertarians fail.
If we legalized drugs, and then allowed private industry to put forward solutions, we’d all be eating crack cocaine in our Cocoa Puffs.
The answer to the drug problem is exactly what we did during the last drug problem in the late 19th century when America was addicted to Opiates following the Civil War.
The answer is…EDUCATION
Real honest to god Education, not “Just say no to drugs” bullshit.
NR
Sorry, I meant comments like Barr’s. Not the one I was responding to.
SnarkyShark
Yep, thats what it sounds like. Let Blackwater do the interdiction stuff and let Halliburton build the
execution chamberstreatment centers.The best step forward would be to get rid of all the idiots who cant get past 1968.
Max Power
…Clicking through the link, Bob Barr cites and example of an employer mandating drug tests and health checkups. What Bob likes about that it’s that it’s not the government mandating drug tests and health checkups. He says it’s not coercive, because employees who don’t like random drug tests “have the choice of finding a new employer.”
Except, of course, if all the employers are providing this “private solution” to the war on drugs, as Bob Barr would like them too. And besides, it’s like saying that citizens who don’t like paying federal taxes have the “option” of earning say $5000 a year. (Ain’t no more effective way to legally reduce your taxes than that.)
Maybe we should just run drug tests on those who think Bob Barr is making sense :-)
jake
Like privately-owned prisons perhaps?
Hmmm.
Nope. Pass.
Uh…
Right. So … Um. Does anyone else hear a cuckoo clock?
*Snicker snerk LOL
4tehlulz
Speaking of LOLWUT:
McCain Calls Arizona a Swing State
Billy K
I’m sorry, but acknowledging that reality is real after decades of denying it does not earn Bob Barr – or any other disingenuous, Republican opportunist asshole – a banana sticker. “ZOMG! The “War on Drugs is bad!” Where the fuck was he ten years ago when it mattered; when he coulda done something about it? Answer: marching in lockstep with Newt and Co.
And then to push the Libertarians’ version of the Underpants Gnome solution – “let the free market fix it!” – as his answer just shows he’s still denying the obvious.
Fuck the fucker.
Kevin
That sounds kind of familiar for some reason.
Rick Taylor
This is off topic, but a while ago you gave us an assignment:
I know it’s late, but I found one.
I think is from before he got a bee under his bonnet concerning Obama and health care, which may explain it.
Seanly
Ahh, the magic pixie dust of free markets! I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again: libertarians are stupid assholes. Somolia, Chile & New Zealand show how libertarian economics are an EPIC FAIL.
Please note that persons who are for sensible drug laws, increased personal freedoms, no censorship, etc. are not libertarians.
crw
Perhaps he means religiously funded charity ‘treatment’ programs. After all, if religious indoctrination is good enough for -gays-alcoholics, it’s good enough for all druggies.
dadanarchist
I have to say with Barr I’m on the fence whether all this genuine or just political opportunism, occupying the libertarian position long ago abandoned by much of the Republican Party.
I didn’t really care about that whole Clinton impeachment thing anyway – I knew from the get-go it would hurt Repubs more than it would hurt the Dems, especially when you had the various troll-like Repub leaders on TV every night obsessing over the Clenis.
My problem with Barr was that he so often took positions that contradicted his own claims to be a small government conservative.
He has switched on so many issues, from the PATRIOT ACT and the Iraq War, to this new reversal on the War on Drugs, that one might say that Bob Barr has to be wrong before he can actually be right.
Face
If this isn’t a coded phrase for “He’s black, and I’m in OK, which makes him not O.K., and I’m a chickenshit”, I dunno what is:
Wow. Even fellow Dems wont endorse their own candy. Racism, IMO.
gypsy howell
I’m ready to give my full-throated support to The War On The War On Drugs. But only if it’s all legalized, not if it’s just outsourced to private industry.
Michael D.
I will never forgive Bob Barr for DOMA. Having said that, I agree with you, John. He has been making a lot of sense on many issues.
Michael D.
No matter what Democrat was running against a Republican, conservatives would pronounce him or her “The Most Liberal Senator” or some such thing. I guarantee they would have done it to Hillary, too.
jrg
Screw employers that drug test. If I have the choice, I never will work for another employer like this again. Not only are piss tests one of the worst predictors of employee performance, they also cannot catch most users of heroin and cocaine.
What someone does in their own house, on their own time, is their own business. As a matter of principle, I will not work or shop anywhere that piss tests it’s employees.
As a matter of practicality, your management team is not doing it’s job if you have to rely on piss to determine which candidate is the best. I only work for people who can get the job done. Piss testing is a cargo cult. A good business does not waste time with useless metrics of urine quality.
jake
Some restrictions may apply. Offer not valid with in 15 feet of Joe Lieberman (ID-Con).
Bubblegum Tate
I always appreciate it when a politician gives an actual sincere mea culpa. Barr ain’t out of the woods yet, but he’s on the right path.
montysano
Off-topic rant to follow, so my apologies in advance…..
How are we ever supposed to fix anything in this country, how are we ever supposed to have a rational discussion about anything, when we’ve got a lying, scum-sucking, worthless shit-weasel like Sean Hannity dumping a daily dose of outright lies into the ears of his millions of listeners?
He’s out there, right this minute, bawling about the doody-headed libs who won’t let him drill in ANWR, esp. since there’s the equivalent of 30 years worth of imported oil just lying there.
I’ve gathered the facts. I’ve done the math. Being generous, there’s enough oil in ANWR to replace imported oil for about 30 months. Maybe 36 months. 10 years from now.
Oh well…. work is over, time for bong, wine, and sushi, ’cause that’s how us eleets roll.
Bubblegum Tate
What if that business is urinalysis? Didn’t think of that, did ya, smart guy?
OK, seriously, I do think the whole piss test thing is fucking stupid. As noted above, it doesn’t even catch users of hard drugs. Basically, all it’s going to show you is if somebody smokes weed, even if it’s only the occasional joint. It’s pretty damn useless.
HumboldtBlue
Hmm… Fuck Bob Barr and the Indiana crack farm he came from. How about impeaching a sitting President for a fucking crime like and illegal war Bob, instead of a goddamned blowjob.
This fumbledick can go fuck that loony VP he’s running with for all I care. That he makes sense now that he’s in no position to do anything constructive about the serious problems facing our nation and the world means he’s just another cocknozzle Republican who realizes he fucked his country over for a few pieces of silver.
Fuck Bob Barr.
Bubblegum Tate
The fact that Sean Hannity does not get his ass kicked on a daily basis is proof that there is no god.
Mike G
Bob Barr cites and example of an employer mandating drug tests and health checkups. What Bob likes about that it’s that it’s not the government mandating drug tests and health checkups. He says it’s not coercive, because employees who don’t like random drug tests “have the choice of finding a new employer.”
And here we have one of my major problems with libertarianism — they aren’t so much for indivudal freedom as they are for privatized authoritarianism. It’s OK if your employer is crawling up your butt with a microscope, so long as the government isn’t doing it.
In Libertarian Fantasy World people only hold jobs as hobby, so if their employer is screwing them they can easily choose to do something else with their time.
Poisoned by your choice of breakfast cereal? Just buy another — if you’re still healthy enough to eat. And who needs regulation, you can just sue the manufacturer — if you have years to drag it through the courts and massive resources to do legal battle with their army of lawyers.
That and their support of the death penalty. They don’t seem to make the connection that a government that arrogates the right to execute its citizens is not likely to be respectful of their individual rights. Not to mention that it separates us from the civilized world and puts us in company with top executors China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Other Steve
Administering a drug test probably costs at least $100/incident.
Basically Barr is saying we ought to push this cost down to the employers, rather than address the issue with education.
Echo without Bunnies or Men
mmm….crack-o puffs sounds like a rousing start to any morning.
The epic failure is just that; epic. after spending billions of dollars on the warondrugs, the net result is jack squat.
You can still get drugs in prisons and any high school in America (and now the kids have a hot black market selling the pills their baby boomer hypocrite parents string them out on)
Unfortunately it’s one of those issues you cannot expect America adults to understand. You talk about drug law reforms, and the slobbering minions go all kinds of apey. I can just see the attack ads now…”My opponent wants to give meth to kindergarteners…is this the America you want to live in?”
Zifnab
And, of course, this does nothing to actually “clean up the streets” so to speak. If you walk into an interview strung out on heroine, half starved and shaking, I hate to break it to you but they’re not giving you the job.
His “… and organizations …” follow up is what really shivers my spine. On the benign side, he could just be talking about Habitat for Humanity for drug addicts. But I’ll bet dollars to donuts it really translates to Blackwater Crack Head Crackers, Ltd patrolling your streets.
Gated communities. It’s the rich man’s solution to everything. And that’s funny, because I lived in a gated community and we had no shortage of coke heads on our block. They just happened to be rich enough to not get caught.
4tehlulz
Racist.
mightygodking
This requires a massive ignorance of both wrestling’s history and present. Vince McMahon only “assumed responsibility” once it started to become obvious to the general public (and worse, the wrestling fans that made him rich) that the cycle of steroid and painkiller abuse which, at various times, he either blatantly ignored or pretty obviously abetted, was a problem.
And right now, his “zero tolerance” policy is entirely based on standing with the front office. The big stars can do whatever they want, frankly, and the lower-tier guys have two choices: don’t do the drugs and roids and stay small and never get a push to the top (because McMahon is a muscle-loving freak who thinks small guys don’t pull crowds. You know, like Ric Flair, that enormous Hercules of a man), or play the “don’t get caught, because if you get caught then we have to drop the hammer” game.
Holding up Vince McMahon as an example of ethical business practices is just insane.
Just Some Fuckhead
What Demimondian said.
Libertarians, up to this point, have been complicit in our long national nightmare, not only for usually voting with Republicans, but for also launching the rhetoric that government needs to be small enough to drown in a bathtub.
We’ve got a lot of BIG serious problems that require big serious government solutions, something libertarians continue to work to deny us. If Barr wants to atone for his sins, he can do it by getting with the fucking program or getting out of the way.
Dennis - SGMM
Look, we’ve only been making war on drugs for ninety-four years now (Harrison Narcotics Act, passed 1914). If the war in Iraq is worth a hundred years then so is the war on drugs. I understand that we’re about to turn the corner in the war on drugs that will allow us to see the light at the end of the tunnel in six more months.
b-psycho
Some would differ…
That corporate authoritarianism is the common view of what libetarianism “really” means can be blamed on two things: Ayn Rand, & the old-order right-wing stealing libertarian rhetoric for their own purposes & ignoring what it originally referred to. The ones barking about a free market the loudest in the mainstream would crap their pants if they actually had to operate in one without their government backers.
Bob In Pacifica
When a former CIA motherfucker says something that halfway makes sense I think “About time.” Then I think, “How come he gets it now?” Then I wonder, “How come he didn’t get it then?” And then I wonder, “Why am I missing the sincerity here?”
The Moar You Know
Barr is a hypocrite par excellence. Really. Hard to find a bigger one anywhere.
Serious answer? Suicide.
Graeme
It’s a step in the right direction. Ideally, both Obama and Barr will be advocating for a change in policy throughout the general election. It’s well-past time for a change. The vast majority of folks I know on the Right want some kind of policy shift on the drug war. It’s overdue.
Barr may be lame, but I’m glad for him this year. It’s nice that someone, anyone can get the Libertarian platform some more press. Even if most Libertarians are skeptical of the messenger (with good reason).
In sum, I am glad it’s being discussed, but I also have the same fears as the rest of you people: what “private” solution? Why can’t the “private” solution be that it’s your own damn business what you’re smoking, shooting, drinking, or snorting?
Dennis - SGMM
The War on ________ is a great piece of marketing. War on Drugs, War on Terrorism. It’s war people, wars can be won if we just spend enough money, use enough force and have faith in our leaders – right? Who wants to lose a war? Not America, baby, not ever. Losing is caused by losers who don’t stay the course and no one wants to be a loser. And you don’t win wars with old fashioned law enforcement, education or negotiation. More force, more money and more intransigence – or we’ll be losers.
w vincentz
Please excuse me for taking this thread off topic. It hasn’t gottne much coverage in the MSM, but on Monday, Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles for Impeachment.
This action was co-sponsored by Rep Wexler.
It’s time for the junta to be brought to an unglorious end.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Heinous-Crimes-of-Geor-by-Elaine-Brower—Ch-080610-243.html
Zifnab
That’s all very pretty, but it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. We salute Dennis and award him an A for effort. That’s about all it gets us, however.
Velvet Elvis
The war on drugs has been a huge success. If we didn’t funnel billions of dollars in military aid to corrupt despots throughout Latin America the outbreak of democracy and fair elections down there could never be contained.
w vincentz
Zinfab,
Just pay attention to those that cast their votes against.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Can someone who speaks libertarian please explain to me how the narco-gangs and pushers aren’t “private industry and organizations”? Don’t we already know what their “solutions” are?
I was always under the impression that no capitalist enterprise is less regulated than a black market? Neh?
Conservatively Liberal
Mantis is asking the right question, and Max Power interprets what Barr said the same way I do. Barr is saying that the current war on drugs is a failure, but he sounds like a typical Republican in wanting to privatize something the government currently handles.
For example, jrg rightly points out that Barr is happy to let business be ‘the big stick’ in the war on drugs. It’s the same ol’ same ol’, and this old stoner won’t buy this spiel from Barr.
No Sale.
On another point:
Damn straight. In the 80’s I worked at a boat company and they knew I smoked pot. When I was busted for possession back in the 80’s the head of security and the plant manager pushed for and got me fired, even though the bust had absolutely nothing to do with work.
Two weeks after I was fired, I was contacted by the company because they were having problems finding the diagrams for a new hydraulic engine cover lift I designed and built for one of the 27 foot twin-engined prototypes for the new model year. I told them that when I designed it I did not have time to get the plans on paper because of the crush of getting the boats out of the door for the upcoming (at the time) boat shows.
Well, the concept was a hit at the boat show and they had a bunch of orders for the model. They tried to get me to draw them up the plans and schematics, and I told them to take a long walk off a short pier. In the end, the company rehired me a week later, gave me a raise above scale for my troubles and I went on to lead the electrical/rigging/motors department less than a year later. They knew I still smoked pot, but they didn’t care. Why?
Because I could design and build custom systems that sold, and it was first class all of the way. It was a case of where they were willing to overlook my habit because I could do what they needed to get done. I went on to design many other systems for the boats, such as an automatic cabin lighting system and complete redesigns of the electrical systems on all line models.
Talent speaks volumes. Piss is piss. A smart employer will take talent over piss, and day.
Conservatively Liberal
Make that “any day.”
Time to smoke a bowl. ;)
anonymous 37
Bob Barr cites and example of an employer mandating drug tests and health checkups. What Bob likes about that it’s that it’s not the government mandating drug tests and health checkups. He says it’s not coercive, because employees who don’t like random drug tests “have the choice of finding a new employer.”
Okay, and residents of the United States who don’t like the extent of government control can move to one of the other 200-odd countries in the world, if they think they can find a better deal. Ordinarily, if any market had that many competitors in it, libertarians would fall all over themselves to point to it as proof that regulation isn’t necessary and that enough choice exists. When it comes to the federal government, that argument goes out the window for some reason.
I am not sure what exactly Bob Barr will have to do to atone for all his sins in the eyes of the more liberal readers here
Honestly admitting to using racial slurs against the airport security employees that were doing their jobs back in 1998 would be a very good start. I don’t know why the most prominent Libertarian political figures are involved in so many incidents of open bigotry, but until the rank and file take a hard line against this shit, I’m not inclined to support them in any fashion.
Jay B.
That corporate authoritarianism is the common view of what libetarianism “really” means can be blamed on two things: Ayn Rand, & the old-order right-wing stealing libertarian rhetoric for their own purposes & ignoring what it originally referred to.
Well, at least “real” libertarians have a few blogs.
There’s literally nothing I find funnier than someone railing against the Libertarian Establishment for being Randian fascists.
4tehlulz
Name 17 Republican senators that will vote to convict, then I’ll take this seriously.
numbskull
Billy K has it right:
“I’m sorry, but acknowledging that reality is real after decades of denying it does not earn Bob Barr – or any other disingenuous, Republican opportunist asshole – a banana sticker. “ZOMG! The “War on Drugs is bad!” Where the fuck was he ten years ago when it mattered; when he coulda done something about it? Answer: marching in lockstep with Newt and Co.
And then to push the Libertarians’ version of the Underpants Gnome solution – “let the free market fix it!” – as his answer just shows he’s still denying the obvious.”
b-psycho
Jay B: that’s the problem with there even being a “libertarian establishment”. You attempt to take an anti-political philosophy and play politics with it, naturally it gets overtaken by various swindlers. There can be no libertarian “party”.
Bob Barr’s insinuation that corporatized drug dealing is the answer to cartelizied drug dealing shows how little he thinks before he speaks. It was already corporatized, look at the history of cocaine for example.
El Cid
Anyone can learn. Anyone can grow. Anyone can begin undoing the harm they once caused.
LarryB
Libertarians talk a good game but until they acknowledge that Exxon, Microsoft and Wall-Mart have more power than nations and treat their intrusions with the same fear and loathing they accord to the Feds, they can just piss up a rope.
b-psycho
LarryB: Some do, tends to be the anarchist ones (some of whom I’ve mentioned). Unfortunately nowhere near enough do these days…
ThymeZone
Barr is right that the drug war is a failure. It was true 35 years ago when Richard Nixon said “We are winning the war on drugs.”
Or, maybe Nixon meant, if you take drugs, you will think we are winning a war. I don’t know. I only know that Nixon was full of shit, and so was Barr until recently.
So Barr can go fuck himself.
Dayv
I don’t want my next-door neighbor refining his own gasoline or cooking up his own meth, no matter how good a price he offers me.
Maybe I’d feel differently if I didn’t live in an apartment building. I prefer a lack of explosions on the other side of my bedroom wall.
Dayv
That is his free market solution? Get all the employers to piss test? I guess we’ll have to mandate that, right? Or wait, maybe just offer companies some sweet tax breaks to do it. Either way, I’m not sure how forcing more drug users into the underground economy is going to improve matters.
Libertarians, as usual, fail.
Dayv
Nicely put.