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` grew worried that the Lcmocratic Party might be labeled involvement in anti-military, anti-nuclear power. anti-big soft on drugs. He returned to Washington in mid-July deter- business, anti-authority demonstrations." Apublic-health mined to pass an omnibus drug-control bill before the up- approach to drug control was replaced by an emphasis on coming election. The legislation had to be drafted within a law enforcement. Drug abuse was no longer considered u month. Eric E. Sterling, who was then the assistant counsel form of illness; all drug use was deemed immoral, and pun- for the House Subcommittee on Crime, recently told me that fishing drug offenders was thought to be more important staff members scrambled to assemble a bill. The process of than getting them off drugs. The drug war soon became a selecting drug quantities to trigger the mandatory-mini- bipartisan effort, supported by liberals and conservatives mum sentences was far from scientific, according to Ster- alike. Nothing was [o be gained politically by defending ling: "Numbers were being picked out of thin air." drug abusers from excessive punishment. The drug-control bill left the subcommittee in mid- Drug-control legislation was proposed, almost like clock- August, while many academics and government officials work, during every con- were away on vacation. There had gressional-election vear in been little time to study the poten- the 1980x. Election years tial costs of the legislation or its have continued to inspire ~ ramifications for the criminal-jus- f bold new drug-control tice system. In the absence of pub- schemes. On September 25 lic hearings there had been no in- t of last year Speaker of the put from federal judges, prison House Newt Gingrich intro- authorities, or drug-abuse experts. duced legislation demand- President and Mrs. Reagan were ~ ing either a life sentence or calling for tough new drug-control ~ the death penalty for anyone k measures, and House Democrats caught bringing more than I rushed to provide them. Only six- ! two ounces of marijuana into ~ teen congressmen voted against the the United States. Gingrich's bill, which passed in the Senate by a bill attracted twenty-six co- voice vote. Reagan signed the final sponsors, though i[ failed to version of the bill on October 27, reach the House floor. A few just a week before Election Day. months earlier Senator Phil In Smoke and Mirrors, which was / Gramm had proposed deny- published last year, Dan Baum, a ing federal welfare benefits, former Wu[1 Street Journal re- including food stamps, to porter, gives a definitive account anyone convicted of a drug of the politics surrounding Rea- crime, even a rnisdemean- gan's war on drugs. Conserva- or. Gramm's proposal [five parents' groups opposed was endorsed by a wide to marijuana had helped to variety of senators-in- ignite the Reagan Revolu- chiding liberals such [ion. Marijuana symbol- as Barbara Boxer. Tom ized the weakness and Harkin, Patrick Leahy, permissiveness of a lib- and Paul Wellstone. A eralsociety;itwasheld revised version of the responsible for the ~ amendment, limiting slovenly appearance the punishment to peo- of teenagers and their ple convicted of a dtvg r lack of motivation. ~ ~ felony, was incorpomt- Carlton Turner. Rea- - ~ ed into the welfare bill gan's first drug czar, signed by President believed [hat mar- Clinton during the pres- ijuana use was in- F,'~• idential campaign. Pos- extricably linked to sessing a few ounces of "[he present young- marijuana is a felony in adult generation's most states, us is grow- 9d ~rnn i•rn;