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A tree grows in Washington?

Writer-at-large John H. Richardson's column, "The Richardson Report," runsright here each Tuesday.

Famously, Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the United States banking system during the first seven days of his first term.

And what did he do on the eighth day? "I think this would be a good time for beer," he said.

Congress had already repealed Prohibition, pending ratification from the states. But the people needed a lift, and legalizing beer would create a million jobs. And lo, booze was back. Two days after the bill passed, Milwaukee brewers hired six hundred people and paid their first $10 million in taxes. Soon the auto industry was tooling up the first $12 million worth of delivery trucks, and brewers were pouring tens of millions into new plants.

"Roosevelt's move to legalize beer had the effect he intended," says Adam Cohen, author of Nothing To Fear, a thrilling new history of FDR's first hundred days. "It was, one journalist observed, 'like a stick of dynamite into a log jam.'"

Many in the marijuana world are now hoping for something similar from Barack Obama. After all, the president-elect said in 2004 that the war on drugs had been "an utter failure" and that America should decriminalize pot:

In July, Obama told Rolling Stone that he believed in "shifting the paradigm" to a public-health approach: "I would start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives -- it's expensive, it's counterproductive, and it doesn't make sense."

Meanwhile, economists have been making the beer argument. In a papertitled "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," Dr. Jeffrey Miron of Harvard argues that legalized marijuana would generate between $10 and $14 billion in savings and taxes every year -- conclusions endorsed by 300 top economists, including Milton "Free Market" Friedman himself.

And two weeks ago, when the Obama team asked the public to vote on the top problems facing America, this was the public's No. 1 question: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

But alas, the answer from Camp Obama was -- as it has been for years -- a flat one-liner: "President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana." And at least two of Obama's top people are drug-war supporters: Rahm Emanuel has been a long-time enemy of reform, and Joe Biden is a drug-war mainstay who helped create the position of "drug czar."

Meanwhile, in 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, 782,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes (90 percent of them for possession), with approximately 60,000 to 85,000 of them serving sentences in jail or prison. It's the continuation of an unnecessary stream of suffering that now has taught generations of Americans just how capricious their government can be. The irony is that the preference for "decriminalization" over legalization actually supports the continued existence of criminal drug mafias.

Nevertheless, the marijuana community is guardedly optimistic. "Reformers will probably be disappointed that Obama is not going to go as far as they want, but we're probably not going to continue this mindless path of prohibition," NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre tells me.

Some of Obama's biggest financial donors are friends of the legalization movement, St. Pierre notes. "Frankly, George Soros, Peter Lewis, and John Sperling -- this triumvirate of billionaires -- if those three men, who put up $50 to $60 million to get Democrats and Obama elected, can't pick up the phone and actually get a one-to-one meeting on where this drug policy is going, then maybe it's true that when you give money, you don't expect favors."

Another member of that moneyed group: Marsha Rosenbaum, the former head of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, who quit last year to become a fundraiser for Obama and "bundled" an impressive $204,000 for his campaign. She said that based on what she hears from inside the transition team, she expects Obama to play it very safe. "He said at one point that he's not going to use any political capital with this -- that's a concern," Rosenbaum tells me. And the Path to Change will probably have to pass through the Valley of Studies and Reports. "I'm hoping that what the administration will do," she says, "is something this country hasn't done since 1971, which is to undertake a presidential commission to look at drug policy, convene a group of blue-ribbon experts to look at the issue, and make recommendations."

But ultimately, Rosenbaum remains confident that those recommendations would call for an end to the drug war. "Once everything settles down in the second term, we have a shot at seeing some real reform."

Still, a certain paranoia prevails. Rumors about Obama's choice for drug czar have lingered on Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad. "He's been a standard anti-drug warrior for the whole time he's been in Congress," says St. Pierre. Another possibility is Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington, who raises fears in the legalization community of more of the same law-enforcement model. Another prospect stirring the pothead waters is Dr. Don Vereen, the chief drug policy thinker on the transition team. "He's really a believer in prohibition and he can excite an audience," says Rosenbaum, who says a friend on the transition team refused to hint at final contenders for the drug czar pick. "I'm joking with him, 'I'm going to have to open up the New York Times for this, aren't I?'" His answer: "We're going to send out smoke signals."

Nadelmann for Drug Czar Petition

By siteczar - Posted on December 8th, 2008

To: President-elect Barack Obama

We the undersigned request the appointment of Ethan Nadelmann to direct the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (“Drug Czar”) of the United States of America.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Nadelmann has advocated in The United States and abroad for an open discussion of national drug control policy. His grasp of international law, the history of prohibition and current global drug control regimes is unparalleled. Through his books, dozens of published articles, academic lectures and papers, Dr. Nadelmann has demonstrated a detailed grasp of the evolving network of global prohibitions and international enforcement treaties. His exemplary research skills and resulting accomplishments have provided him a unique understanding of the history, development and contemporary practices of U.S. drug control policy and its relationship to the health of the citizens of The United States.

Dr. Nadelmann’s command of the best available peer-reviewed scientific research would best serve The United States at the Drug Czar position, responsible for setting national goals on education, drug abuse prevention and law enforcement. He is eminently qualified to conceive of a national drug control policy that vastly improves on the current model, which has changed little over the last 35 years, in order to better safeguard the health of our children and the general U.S. population, reduce crime rates and recidivism, abate drug-related violence, conspiratorial activity and address head on a vast source of clandestine financial support for international terrorism.

Dr. Nadelmann has directed the non-partisan, nonprofit advocacy group the Drug Policy Alliance for more than 15 years, which boasts the support of Nobel laureates, prominent U.S. government representatives from both political parties, economists, scientists, and members of law enforcement.

It is our belief that his rigorous approach to identifying common-sense solutions, combined with his unique ability to inspire diverse audiences from both sides of the aisle, makes Dr. Nadelmann uniquely qualified for the position of Drug Czar in an administration whose stated goals are to repeal the harshest drug sentences, remove federal bans on funding syringe-exchange programs to reduce AIDS, give medical marijuana a fair chance to prove itself, and support treatment alternatives for low-level drug offenders.

Sign Petition @ http://drugczarofmydreams.com/node/2

Palin soap opera: Drug in Levi's mom's case is oxycontin

Zaz Hollander | Anchorage Daily News

last updated: December 19, 2008 11:34:30 PM

WASILLA, Alaska — Wasilla resident Sherry L. Johnston, mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend, faces a Jan. 6 court date for an oxycontin-related arrest at her home by Alaska State Troopers.

Little additional information was available Friday on the case as authorities remained unusually tight-lipped about details. But Palmer court records listed Johnston's scheduled court date and a troopers spokeswoman said in a release late Friday afternoon that the charges "are in relation to the drug oxycontin."

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, who Gov. Sarah Palin said was the father of Bristol Palin's unborn child. Levi Johnston joined the Palins at the Republican National Convention when Palin was running for vice president. It was during the convention that the governor and her husband, Todd, announced Bristol's pregnancy.

She was arrested around noon Thursday by troopers serving a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. A standard press release issued by troopers said Johnston was arrested on six felony counts: second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance - generally manufacturing or delivering drugs - as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession.

She was released on bail Thursday afternoon, just a few hours later.

Johnston has not responded to phone messages or requests for comment left at the family home. Nobody answered the door there Friday.

Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters wouldn't say Friday if there were other potential defendants.

Normally, troopers file charging documents in court to back up arrests. Clerks at the Palmer courthouse said they hadn't seen any filings, and none has to be filed until the hearing.

The Palmer District Attorney's office prosecutes drug cases. Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said he was aware of the arrest, but also had not seen any reports or charging documents.

Kalytiak said the standard protocol for drug arrests is that law enforcement officials observe one drug buy, then get a warrant that permits them to record conversations and document more buys.

"I'd imagine standard protocol was followed," the district attorney said.

A spokesman for Gov. Palin on Thursday said the arrest was "not a state government matter" and so no comment or interviews on the topic would be forthcoming.

Why Obama Really Might Decriminalize Marijuana

Nadelmann for Drug Czar Petition

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Palin soap opera: Drug in Levi's mom's case is oxycontin

Zaz Hollander | Anchorage Daily News