Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2001 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Contact:  P.O. Box 3110 Honolulu, HI 96802
Fax: (808) 525-8037
Website: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Author: Gregory Kane
Note: Gregory Kane is a columnist for The Baltimore Sun.

ASHCROFT'S POSITION ON DRUGS TERRIFYING

When John Ashcroft, opponent of abortion, affirmative action and gratuitous 
gun-banning, was nominated by President Bush to the influential post of 
U.S. attorney general, liberals reacted in knee-jerk fashion.

So did conservatives.

But neither Republicans nor Democrats, the liberal media nor the 
conservative media paid much attention to the non-partisan group called 
Common Sense for Drug Policy, which paints a different picture of Ashcroft 
than the one heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee:

He favors cutting funds for drug treatment and prevention and putting them 
into yet more law enforcement efforts.  In other words, Ashcroft favors the 
"lock 'em up" approach to the drug war.

Democrats couldn't nail Ashcroft on this, of course, since their attorney 
genera l of the past eight years, Janet Reno, pursued precisely  i e same 
policy.

When he was U.S. senator from Missouri,  Ashcroft sponsored Senate Bill 
486, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act. Common Sense claims 
Ashcroft's proposal "would have empowered federal, state and local law 
enforcement agencies to enter your house, your office, your computer or 
your car without a warrant and without any obligation to inform you that a 
search or seizure had been conducted."

That's not surprising since the "war on drugs" is turning more into a war 
on privacy  and civil liberties every day. Most conservatives are too rigid 
to admit that, but the four or five conservatives remaining in the country 
who still value privacy and individual liberty had better give Ashcroft a 
second look.

As governor of Missouri, Ashcroft flagrantly violated the state 
Constitution by refusing to pass money from forfeited drug assets on to 
public schools. Instead, he let his state police keep the dollars, even 
after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled it was a violation of that state's 
Constitution. That was in 19 90. In 1998, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 
that -- because Missouri state police passed on drug asset dollars to the 
Drug Enforcement Administration, which would then return some of the money 
to state police -- the cops and the DEA had "successfully conspired to 
violate the Missouri Constitution."

That's the Ashcroft whose supporters claim he will "enforce the law as it 
is." It seems like Ashcroft, who used the word "integrity" no fewer than 
three times when he spoke publicly after Bush announced his nomination for 
attorney general, may have all the integrity of a true Missourian. Of the 
Frank and Jesse James mold.
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