A recent GQ story claims that sources inside the Obama Administration say he is going to tackle drug policy reform issues if he wins a second term. Well, the first paragraph says that, then the article goes off in other directions for the most part.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition responded to the piece on their website, wondering if the author of the piece is only be used and lied to.

Sounds exciting, but don’t be fooled by the big headline because the piece itself contains zero details about what the administration allegedly has in mind. A skeptical observer could easily come away from reading this piece thinking that administration/campaign people who recognize the drug war’s vast political unpopularity are being somewhat disingenuous with Ambinder.

Obama — as candidate and as president — and his drug czar have already repeatedly talked about scaling back the war on drugs.  But it’s been all talk.  Drug Czar Kerlikowske, in his very first interview with the Wall Street Journal after taking office, declared the end of the “war on drugs” terminology.  He has repeatedly said that this is a health and not just a crime issue.  But the problem is: the drug control budget still overwhelmingly devotes more resources to old, failed punishment strategies than effective treatment and prevention strategies.  The rhetoric doesn’t match the reality.

So while Ambinder’s story says the administration will use the “bully pulpit” to talk about this issue in the second term, they have already done so in the first term.  Sure, maybe the president himself could do more to forcefully champion this debate, but absent any real policy action it’s not going to make a difference in the real medical problem of substance abuse, and it’s not going to impress anyone.

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- Joe Klare