NJ Governor Calls War on Drugs "A Failure"
Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, declared that the 40-year war on drugs has been a failure, although well-intentioned. The most interesting part of this statement is the fact that the Governor is a Republican. Being one of the few Republicans to openly speak out against the drug war policies, Christie took his position by putting a "moral spin" and economic spin on it:
"If you're pro-life, as I am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb," he said. "Every life is precious and every one of God's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't if we ignore them."
"It costs us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in New Jersey state prisons last year," Christie said. "A full year of inpatient drug treatment costs 24,000 a year."
While Mitt Romney stated, in the 2012 Republican primary, "We've got to not only continue our war on drugs from a police standpoint but also to market again to our young people about the perils of drugs," Gov. Christie continued to emphasize a focus on the longer term problem. Christie takes a realistic viewpoint by acknowledging that people will use drugs and may get addicted to them. He seems to want to follow the route that many countries have around the world by decriminalizing marijuana and possibly other drugs.
"You can certainly make the argument that no one should try drugs in the first place, I certainly am in that camp," Christie said, "but tens of millions of people in our society do every year, and for some people they can try it and walk away from it, but for others the first time they try it they become an addict, and they're sick and they need treatment."
Hopefully other politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, share similar view with Chris Christie.
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