Yet another positive development:
Policy wonks and deficit hawks weren’t the only ones paying attention when President Obama signed the Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act last week. HIV activists, public health experts and communities of drug users celebrated–not for what’s in the appropriations bill, but for what’s not in it: a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, which has appeared in the federal budget every year since 1988.
After two decades, this change is a historic achievement. Obama had already missed one opportunity to lift the ban, neglecting to pull it out of his budget in May. Still, that same month former Seattle chief of police Gil Kerlikowske was sworn in as the director of national drug control policy, calling for a new common-sense approach to drug addiction. When the drug czar calls for an end to the war on drugs, it’s clearly the start of a new era.
Unlike during the Clinton administration, when there was only mixed support for needle exchange–in 1998, drug czar Barry McCaffrey convinced Bill Clinton to renege on his stated intention to lift the ban–all of the top brass in the Obama administration are on record in favor.
It really is a sign of how dysfunctional our national dialogue is that something as common sense as needle exchanges is politically off limits. And that isn’t even getting into the rest of our insane drug laws.
BTW- I was mocking them earlier, but is it just me, or is the Nation pretty good reading lately?
BR
Am I right in remembering also that the appropriations bill (was it this one?) no longer prevents D.C. from implementing their decade-old medical marijuana law?
Which means that soon enough there will be CA/RI/NM/CO-style cannabis dispensaries in D.C.
kid bitzer
needle exchange is such a basic, obvious, win-win.
you get better-quality sound from a new stylus, *and* it is easier on the old vinyl. and god knows those old lp’s need all the help they can get.
why would anyone oppose it?
Martin
Did baby Jesus ever exchange needles? No. Was he ever denied health insurance? No.
I think that’s all we need to know here.
mr. whipple
Keep it up, you crazy Bot, you.
People might even smile a little, and we can’t have that.
mr. whipple
Doesn’t this policy just encourage hippies to shoot smack? Why does Obama want to encourage drug abuse? Is it because he’s buying votes from junkies, or is he just stabbing coke fiends in the back?
stacie
But Obama didn’t issue an executive order legalizing drugs in America? Goddamn it, when will that Liebercrat corporatist sell out quit MAKING ME FEEL SMALL?
handy
srsly!! and wherez mah pony dammit!
beltane
But you’re missing the main point, which is that Obama did not do this in May when he first had the opportunity. Permitting federal funding for needle exchanges is meaningless without the public option and is a giveaway to the health insurance industry. This move is a cynical attempt to throw the progressive base a bone. If you people weren’t stuck in your veal pen, you would see this shit sandwich for what it is.
PeakVT
The needle and the damage done.
Just Some Fuckhead
Finally, clean needles. My arms thank Obama.
MikeJ
We can only hope.
Loneoak
Which means that soon enough there will be CA/RI/NM/CO-style cannabis dispensaries in D.C.
Maybe once all those cranky ass Senators get some white widow in ’em we’ll get some legalized weed. (Well, I already do in CA, but you guys deserve some, too.) Wouldn’t it be lovely to see Orin Hatch load up the vaporizer for Robert Byrd before they watch The Matrix?
Jay B.
@beltane:
Blarharharhar!
Or, to use your formulation: It shows what can happen when Obama listens to his instincts and does the right thing instead of letting reactionaries set his agenda.
BR
Oh, I might mention – if you live in MA, VT, or WA – you should call and write your local state senator/assemblyperson and support the drug reform/cannabis legalization bills that are under consideration.
Because what @stacie says above will be what the GOP is saying if CA passes its cannabis legalization proposition next year and Obama doesn’t smack them down. However, if MA, VT, WA, and a number of states that have medical cannabis bills pass drug reform, then it won’t be the easy target of San Francisco hippies needing punching by Obama – it’ll be that drug reform is something people in many states want to see happen.
MikeJ
@PeakVT: Baby’s black balloon makes her fly
fraught
This encourages people to just make unnecessary and really grotesque scarves and mittens and socks including gay ones which are really an abomination.
gbear
You know, you could take a pill that would make you feel larger.
JenJen
Something not being mentioned a lot in progressive circles is that the Senate managed to pass a two-month extension of unemployment benefits deadlines under the defense appropriations bill on Saturday, which the President signed today. Although Congress passed a twenty-week extension last month, without this two-month deadline extension, millions of Americans who lost their jobs at the height of the economic crisis in October of 2008 would not have qualified for the twenty-week extension.
Warren Terra
My politics, though Liberal, are probably to the right of the Nation fairly often (I’m closer to the Matt Yglesias/Ezra Klein/American Prospect line), but I’ve been a subscriber for almost a decade and — much as I loathe their biweekly columnist Alexander Cockburn, the periodic pieces by or supporting Ralph Nader or Michael Moore, and the one-sided articles on subjects including Cuba, Venezuela, and Israel — I love the Nation. Their investigative reporting in particular has been great recently: cover stories on American transport contracts funding the Taliban and on Blackwater in Pakistan, both in the last month, are must-reads, and (though it was a year ago now) their big investigation of police killings during Katrina was a tour de force.
The Grand Panjandrum
Any sissy can use a sharp, clean needle. It takes a real man to use a dull, dirty needle to shoot dope. No pain, no gain.
danimal
Obama is clearly trying to make sure the progressive base is high so they are inattentive while he implements his corporatist agenda.
Comrade Kevin
The Nation publishes Alexander Cockburn. That is unforgivable, as far as I’m concerned.
Just Some Fuckhead
Alternative Post Title: One Track At a Time
arguingwithsignposts
kitteh pic, because I’m still sick of this shit. Smudge, yah!
mr. whipple
Canabis dispensaries, in the absense of subsidized munchies for the very poor, is simply a slap in the face.
Marc
“It really is a sign of how dysfunctional our national dialogue is that something as common sense as needle exchanges is politically off limits.”
Not anymore, apparently. This is the benefit of electing a President who watched The Wire.
I can’t wait for him to thank Sens. Inhofe and Coburn for their cooperation by turning all of Oklahoma into “Hamsterdam.”
Nora Carrington
You know what else is in this bill that’s a Good Thing ™? An extension of the 65% subsidy for COBRA. I’ve been out of work since April, and my health insurance has been an affordable $235/mo. because of the original subsidy, included in the stimulus bill. The subsidy was originally only for 9 mo. and it expired Dec. 1. The subsidy’s been pushed out to 15 months. Without it, I wrote a check for $673 in Dec. for the exact same insurance. This experience has been a bit of a window into what individual insurance pre- and post-reform is likely to look like if I’m unable to find another job with benefits.
jeffreyw
@mr. whipple: Just means they have to put in a bakery next door to every one of them.
El Cid
@mr. whipple: Awesome.
mr. whipple
@El Cid:
Thank you, but I’m afraid I had it all wrong.
This is clearly Rahm buckling under to the corporate heroin, speedball and needle manufacturer lobbies.
Roger Moore
@Marc:
Fixt. As an admitted dope fiend, you’d expect Obama to be a supporter of decriminalization.
PeakVT
Smack and sweet leaf in one thread? Yes we can.
Tx Expat
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ve been meaning to comment on the cuteness factor of your new kitteh. Adorable. If it weren’t for a severe allergy to cats, I would be getting one as well. As is, I’m waiting until I get done with law school to get a small dog. Can’t wait!
As for legislation that I would like to see passed, this is at the top of my list.
I realize prisoner rights are not very sexy, but it is a very important issue – especially for young offenders. If we could actually rehabilitate kids at 15-18, we would see a drop in recidivism and not have to worry about creating a permanent criminal underclass.
I demand that Obama use his bully pulpit!
/snark
BR
@Roger Moore:
Um, Obama never admitted to using (nor does it seem likely that he used) smack. He did use pot and coke in high school and pot in college – that’s what he wrote about in his first book.
AnotherBruce
Did Obama consult with Co-Presidents Lieberman and Nelson before he did this?
kth
@Comrade Kevin: Cockburn is no worse than Marty Peretz, but I still read the New Republic (as well as The Nation). Both magazines have their blind spots, but liberalism would be the worse for it if either ceased to exist.
Something Fabulous
@arguingwithsignposts: Noses.
Something Fabulous
@jeffreyw: Wow! almost as pretty as Smudge!
cj
John Cole, were you really a Republican before the 2008 elections?
You’re sounding so liberal…..The Nation is a good read? Geez
P.S welcome to the light. LOL
El Cid
@mr. whipple: Eightball dimensional chess.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Looks like someone is already queen of the castle. :-)
Ash
@BR: Uhm, you’re missing what’s blatantly obvious here. Obama is blackity black black, of course he used smack. Along with crack and there was probably some meth thrown in there, but he most likely realized that he had a pretty good looking face and didn’t want to screw that up too much.
wmsheppa
The Nation has gotten better over the last couple of years, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to Mother Jones.
Roger Moore
@BR:
You’re right. I remembered wrong.
gopher2
One great unintended consequence of Obama taking on so many big issues is that the grownups can overturn stupid shit like this without anyone really noticing. Believe it or not, there just isn’t enough airtime during the day.
stevie314159
Jesus, just another bailout for the needle manufacturers!
Marc
@BR:
Why let the facts get in the way of a slam on Obama?
Hob
I wish I had something funny to say, but all I can say is that this is a good thing and it’s about fucking time.
JGabriel
John Cole:
Bwahahaha! The transition is complete. Bow to your liberal commie pinko masters, pod person!
.
bob h
BTW- I was mocking them earlier, but is it just me, or is the Nation pretty good reading lately?
It is a measure of how sick we are that your subscription to The Nation is said to be something that potentially interests the FBI.
someguy
I hear that NSA is on the case and that even as we speak Newt Gingrich is mentioning it on Morning Joe.
Though as centrist-rags-belittled-as-commie-rags (Daily Worker… red courtesy phone) go The Nation isn’t bad reading.
Emma Anne
I get The Nation. You just have to flip past Cockburn really fast before you accidentally read a few words.
tenkindsagrumpy
I love Cockburn and the whole counterpunch crew It’s a stew, the more ingredients the better.