Pro-legalization cops slam drug war recalibration, say Obama ‘just talking about it’

[Echo In Light]

By Stephen C. Webster

The White House announced Tuesday a new strategy for the decades-old War on Drugs, saying it plans to place emphasis on treatment and prevention and urging sharp reductions to drug abuse rates nation-wide.

The plan's rosy language, however, doesn't quite mesh with the reality of the drug war's budget allotment: a fact that did not go unnoticed by activist group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which chastised the administration as "just talking about" a truly changed strategy over actually moving ahead with one.

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The budget places America's drug war spending at $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2011; an increase of 3.5 percent over FY 2010. That figure reflects a 5.2 percent increase in overall enforcement funding, growing from $9.7 billion in FY 2010 to $9.9 billion in FY 2011. Addiction treatment and preventative measures, however, are budgeted at $5.6 billion for FY 2011, an increase from $5.2 billion in FY 2010.

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"It's great to see the administration starting to talk like they want to actually change failed drug policies," Franklin added in the LEAP advisory. "But we can't let them get away with claiming that they've ended the 'war on drugs' while we continue to arrest 800,000 people a year on marijuana charges alone."

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0511/police-group-slams-obamas-drug-war-recalibration/