Bush's Born-Again Drug War
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By Paul
Armentano
AlterNet
Posted August 12, 2004.
Despite Constitutional restrictions requiring the separation of church
and state, George W. Bush's ardent Christianity remains the staple
of his administration's anti-drug platform.
Listen to George W. Bush speak about substance abuse and it's apparent
that one is listening to a preacher, not a president.
"There are faith-based organizations in drug treatment that work
so well because they convince a person to turn their life over to
Christ," Bush divulged to the religious journal Christianity
Today. "By doing so, they change a person's heart [and] a person
with a changed heart is less likely to be addicted to drugs and alcohol."
Despite Constitutional restrictions requiring separation of church
and state, Bush's ardent Judeo-Christian faith – the President
is a practicing Methodist who "accepted Jesus Christ into [his]
life" in 1986 – remains the staple of his administration's
anti-drug platform. Whereas previous administrations commonly framed
their anti-drug arguments in secular terms (i.e., former President
Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs" or the Reagan administration's
"Just Say No" campaign), Bush's drug war, at least rhetorically,
resembles that of a religious crusade. GWB's bottom line: Only through
"God's will" may one be "saved" from the temptations
of illegal drugs. It's a stance that many drug law reformers view
as not only ineffective, but possibly illegal.
President Or Proselytizer?
"You know, I had a drinking problem. Right now I should be in
a bar in Texas, not the Oval Office," Bush told author David
Frum in his 2003 biography The Right Man. "There is only one
reason that I am in the Oval Office and not in a bar. I found faith.
I found God. I am here because of the powers of prayer."
While stories recounting the President's prior alcohol and drug use
– so-called "youthful indiscretions" – are well
publicized, not as well known is his 1986 spiritual awakening that
led him to quit his use of intoxicants cold turkey. It's this personal
journey that led Bush to reach his conclusion that other drug users
– recreational pot smokers in particular – must also undergo
their own, albeit coerced, religious conversion to achieve drug abstinence.
After four years in office, it's clear that Bush is willing to use
the bully pulpit and Congress' deep pockets to accomplish his goal:
a drug-free, religiously indoctrinated America.
As President, one of Bush's first actions was to sign an executive
order establishing a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives, presently headed by "Faith Czar" Jim Towey.
In 2002, the Bush administration awarded nearly 500 faith-based programs
– including several drug "education" and treatment
programs – $477 million in taxpayers' funding.
In 2002, Bush doled out an additional $568 million in federal funds
to 680 self-identified faith-based groups – programs like the
fundamentalist Christian drug-treatment project "Set Free Indeed,"
which states: "We rely solely on the foundation of the Word of
God to break the bands of addiction. Once a person ... recognizes
that only God can set them free, the rebuilding process can begin."
To date, the Bush administration has funneled several million dollars
to "Set Free Indeed," and the President singled out its
founder by name during his 2003 State of the Union address, lauding
it as a shining example of federally backed, faith-based drug treatment.
Religion has also been the theme of several new high-profile anti-drug
campaigns launched by the administration. In 2003, just months after
being tapped by Bush to head the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
Karen Tandy threw her weight behind a grassroots anti-drug campaign
called "Pray for the Children." The group's website maintains
that, "The power of prayer is unequaled" in influencing
adolescents from refraining from drug use. Regarding her endorsement
of the program, Tandy explained, "Drug abuse is a scourge that
attacks a person's soul as well as body, so it's fitting that the
solution should engage the soul as well."
Also last year, Bush launched "Faith. The Anti-Drug," a
multimillion dollar campaign to encourage the religious community
to incorporate pot abstinence into their spiritual teachings.
"Faith plays a powerful role in preventing youth marijuana use,"
announced Drug Czar John Walters – himself a disciple of notorious
"virtuecrat" and former drug czar William Bennett –
at the campaign's kickoff party. He added, "We are urging youth
ministers, volunteers and faith leaders to integrate drug prevention
messages and activities into their sermons and youth programming,
and are providing them with key tools and resources to make a difference."
The Anti-Drug?
But are such campaigns "making a difference?" Are they even
appropriate? Critics resoundingly say "no" on both counts.
"Religious drug treatment programs [like those favored by Bush]
turn back the medical clock to the 19th century," says Samantha
Smoot of the Texas Freedom Network, a faith-based initiative watchdog
group whose membership includes over 7,500 religious and community
leaders. "The President values programs that say: 'We can pray
you out of your addiction' more than programs that say: 'We will treat
your addiction with counseling, medical treatment and spirituality.'
Even more outrageous is his insistence that taxpayers foot the bill
for his dangerous approach."
It's also potentially unconstitutional, according to Rev. Barry W.
Lynn, executive director of Americans United, a religious liberty
watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. that argues for the importance
of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. "This
is a massive shell game," he says. "The administration insists
no public funds will be spent on religion, then turns those funds
over to groups that openly brag about how much religion they have
in their programs. The level of duplicity is staggering."
However, according to drug law reformer Charles Thomas, founder of
the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, religious faith can play a
pivotal role in drug policy; though not in the way Bush decrees.
Faith teaches that it's essential that America's drug laws be just
and compassionate, Thomas wrote in the May/June issue of the interfaith
journal, Fellowship.
"People of faith may play an essential role in building public
support for treating drugs as a health issue instead of a crime,"
he explained. "Regardless of whether or not it's immoral to use
drugs, it certainly is wrong to punish people solely for using drugs.
Personal morality issues should be addressed by the faith community
and family, not by cops, courts and prisons."
Bush, however, has escalated criminal drug law enforcement during
his presidency and overseen the arrests of nearly 5 million Americans
for drug crimes, most for no more than minor drug possession. Like
the Crusades of old in which religious transformation typically occurred
"by fire and sword," the Bush administration ultimately
believes that today's drug users' federally ordained path to redemption
is best achieved by way of a jailhouse conversion.
This article
originally appeared in Canada's Heads Magazine.
Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for The NORML Foundation
in Washington, DC.
Interfaith
Drug Policy
Initiative, P.O. Box 6299, Washington,
D.C. 20015
Phone: 301-933-7681 Fax:301-933-7682 |
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