Barack Obama's Meth Menace
The Huffington Post
by Maia Szalavitz

Barack Obama is a dream candidate in so many ways. The mere idea of someone who can write (and presumably therefore think) in a complex yet compelling fashion is almost irresistibly seductive, especially now. Unfortunately, in terms of drug policy, despite his candid and refreshing discussion of his own use, he apparently remains part of our on-going national nightmare.

While no politician is perfect on every issue, Obama's support of the Byrne grant program to fight methamphetamine-- which is prominently highlighted on his website-- is deeply troubling. This program is opposed by both Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and the American Conservative Union on the right-- and the ACLU and George Soros' Open Society Institute on the left. Arianna covered it here.

Even the government's own watchdog Office on Management and Budget doesn't support Byrne grants: it gave them a 13% rating for results and accountability. Randomly answering the questions on a standardized multiple-choice test would likely produce a better grade than that! The Bush administration pushed to eliminate Byrne funding last year-- but Obama supported a Senate bill which provided $900 million dollars.
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