Jim Ramstad as drug czar? NO! NO! NO!

John Tierney at The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and most of the more liberal blogsphere, do not want Jim Ramstad (R-MN) to be Obama's new drug czar - director of the ofice of National Drug Control Policy. The noise they've made has stirred the waters, and now, according to Maia Szalavitz at the Huffington Post, Ramstad is signaling he really wants to become the head honcho of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

This should not happen.


Ramstad's retiring from Congress after serving 9 terms.

Ramstad's name may have come up for consideration because he is a recovering alcoholic, and thought to be a "moderate," but in truth he is, for the most part, just another Repugnican driven by ideology and not science. And that is why, according to Mr. Tierney, "In a joint letter to President-elect Barack Obama, coordinated by Andrew Tatarsky, the past president of the division of addictions of the New York State Psychological Associations, dozens of academics and other professionals in substance-abuse treatment" said Ramstad is not the man for the job.

Ramstad has voted to make permanent the ban on using federal funding for syringe exchange. He has opposed syringe exchange programs on several different occasions, "despite decades of research showing that syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, save lives, save money, and do not increase drug use."


To better understand where Ramstad is coming from, consider his link to Teen Challenge. The Minnesota Independent wrote that "Earlier this year, Ramstad sponsored a $235,000 earmark for the Minnesota Teen Challenge ... an Assemblies of God drug treatment center with a history of controversial therapies and overt religious indoctrination."

Teen Challenge is a fundamentalist Christian outfit dedicated to helping Gentile young people abstain from using drugs by converting to Jesus and helping Jewish teens by becoming "completed," that is to say, Christians!


While Ramstad is said to be pro-choice, to support stem cell research as well as gay rights [but opposed to gay marriage], he is with his Republican cohorts on just about every other issue. His reputation as a "moderate" hangs on those few things, but one cannot forget that in the current Congress he voted with the Republicans 81 percent of the time.


The Obama administration can do better!


Here is an excellent article on Minnesota's Teen Challenge. More on Ramstad's values and votes here.