Reefer Madness

Drug czar John Walters (Photo by John Anderson)

As questions about possible political improprieties dogged his agency in Washington, drug czar John Walters, head of the White House Office of the National Drug Control Policy, swooped into Austin July 20 for a standard-issue ONDCP photo-op at a drug treatment facility in Northeast Austin, where he decried an increase in prescription drug use by teens.

While U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., made public his investigation into possibly illegal politicking activities by Wal­ters and others during last year's election season -- apparent violations of the 1939 Hatch Act, which prohibits campaigning by federal officials and employees -- Walters came to town to talk about teen pharm abuse. Pharmaceutical drug use by teens is now second only to adolescent use of the ever-evil marijuana, according to the ONDCP. In 2006, 19% of teenagers reported using scrip medicines not prescribed to them, and many say they use these drugs because they believe they are "medically safe," according to the national annual survey of adolescent drug use. And that just isn't true, Walters said. "They get into the medicine cabinet and take pills that are either no longer being used or are left around," he said during a brief appearance Friday at the Austin Recovery treatment facility (before he was ushered into a waiting minimotorcade by his very own suited security detail).

Anyone old enough to remember the good old days of prescription Quaaludes will certainly wonder if this "trend" is actually new, or for that matter, newsworthy. Of course, staging press events at rehab facilities, where ONDCP officials are flanked by one or more teens undergoing drug-abuse treatment (the modus operandi for Walters' office) doesn't exactly encourage any real challenge to ONDCP assertions. It's a pretty savvy move, really -- who wants to be the asshole calling Walters to the carpet about his drug "facts" after his chosen treatment teen has delivered an emotional story about a personal struggle with drug addiction? So it was last week, when Walters appeared with Courtney Counts, an articulate 17-year-old determined to wrestle to the mat her addiction to prescription drugs, which, she said, led to a nasty cocaine habit. "By doing drugs, you can mess up the rest of your life," she told reporters. "Being sober has cleared my mind, and I'm able to be really happy." Amen to that.

Nonetheless, it is hard to escape the feeling that these press events are also exploitative and hypocritical. Sure, pronouncements about the scourge of drugs and increases in drug use, particularly among youth, are surefire ways to remind folks that the War on Drugs is alive and well -- and needs plenty of funding to wage. Still, don't be fooled into thinking that means the ONDCP considers drug treatment a priority for its taxpayer funds. Walters' nearly $13 billion proposed 2008 budget earmarks just $3 billion in funds for various treatment programs, including a mere $98 million for the Access to Recovery program, which provides vouchers that can be used for rehab programs ($25 million of this is earmarked for treating meth addiction). The nonprofit group Join Together, a program of the Boston Univer­si­ty School of Public Health that supports community-based efforts to address drug policy, treatment, and prevention, reported earlier this year that the 2008 budget has actually cut nearly $84 million in funding for substance-abuse treatment. Conversely, Walters' office is seeking a $30 million increase next year for its widely criticized anti-drug media campaign, which would give the office $130 million to piss away on its idiotic don't-do-drugs ads -- ads that researchers have concluded have little or no effect (and in some cases a completely adverse effect) on curbing teen drug use. (The latest crop of anti-pot ads, featuring an oddly animated stick-figure couple and an Earth-visiting alien that drops by in his spaceship, are among the most bizarre in recent memory. In case you haven't seen them, suffice it to say that the stick-figure girl ends up dumping her pot-toking boyfriend for the sober, space-surfing alien. Seriously.)

These pressers aren't designed to vet gritty questions about the efficacy of public policy, however. They're designed as budget builders -- or, as has been the case in recent years, to provide political support for campaigning candidates, or to build opposition to state ballot initiatives that don't toe the line on federal drug prohibition. It is these questionable political activities -- wrapped, as always, around feel-good appearances at drug-treatment-related venues -- that have Walters in the spotlight back in Washington. Last week, Rep. Waxman, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Govern­ment Reform, made public the committee's investigation into whether Walters and other executive-branch officials made taxpayer-funded political stumping trips around the country in 2006, at the behest of the White House. Under the Hatch Act -- which forbids federal employees, such as Walters, from using their official "authority of influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election" -- all such political stumping is illegal.

Walters' cross-country trips during election season aren't exactly new and have earned the ire of many drug-policy reformers. In 2002, and again last year, for example, Walters traveled to various points in Nevada to deliver several rounds of anti-drug speeches as voters there were considering whether to enact a sweeping, statewide initiative that would legalize and regulate the sale and use of pot by adults. (The measure did not pass but is likely to return next year.) Walters was called out on his activities by the Marijuana Policy Project and others in the Silver State who said he was violating both state and federal law. The allegations never stuck. This time around, however, Walters may have some explaining to do.

According to documents released by Waxman last week, Walters showed up at 20 events across the country with vulnerable Republican candidates in the run-up to the November election. While the Bush administration has (so far) brushed off any notion of impropriety, the Waxman documents are damning -- including communications from White House political director Sara Taylor (who earlier this month was called to testify about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys), suggesting Walters attend various functions, and an e-mail from Doug Simon, ONDCP White House liaison, recounting a meeting with Shrub political adviser Karl Rove, during which Rove praised Walters for his attention to GOP candidates. Rove thanked, "specifically," Walters and others for "going above and beyond the call of duty" in making "surrogate appearances" with political candidates during the three days prior to the November election (the so-called "72 Hour deployment"). Walters and three other cabinet executives "deserve the most recognition," Rove said, because they "actually had to give up time with their families for the god-awful places we sent them." (Nevada may be dry and unbelievably hot, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a shit hole.)

Waxman is expected to begin hearings on the Hatch Act issues beginning as early as July 30. Before flitting off to the minimotorcade waiting outside Austin Recovery on Friday, Walters dismissed the idea that any of his public appearances might be illegal, calling the allegations mere D.C. politics and "name-calling." Asked whether he might testify before Wax­man's committee, Walters said only that he hadn't "been invited." Perhaps it's time to dust off the old calligraphy pen and get to work.