SF Mayor: 'get real' about war on drugs

In remarks that will shock approximately no one, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently delivered a "ten minute tirade" against the war on drugs:

"If you want to get serious, if you want to reduce crime by 70% in this country overnight, end this war on drugs," he told reporters at City Hall on Thursday. "You want to get serious, seriously serious about crime and violence end this war on drugs."

The mayor maintained local jails are overcrowded with people incarcerated for drug offenses, taking up room that could be used to hold more violent criminal offenders. He said violent criminals with lengthy felony records are being turned loose, too often....

"It's laughable that anyone could look at themselves with a straight face and say 'oh,we're really succeeding.' I mean it's comedy. And as I say, shame on my party, the democratic party, because they don't have the courage of their private thoughts, because we don't want to appear weak on this topic," Newsom said.

It's always nice to see a politician with a national profile of any sort coming out against the war on drugs, even if that politician is the mayor of a city still renowned decades later for its lingering psychedelic afterglow. Of course, Newsom then goes on to backpedal slightly by claiming he's not for legalization:

"I'm not saying (legalization). I'm saying get real about it," he explained. "So what does that mean? Well, it means a lot of things. It means this war on drugs is an abject failure."

Fair enough. "Legalization" has built up negative connotations, as its detractors try to paint the concept with the broad strokes of rampant drug use in the streets and children hopped up on goofballs. However, "legalization" can just as easily mean "regulation," and clearly that's the middle path between drugs available in vending machines and our current situation. It's unclear, then, how helpful Newsom is actually being by simply asking his fellow politicians to "get real about it." Typically getting real involves proposing a solution that could actually work in the real world. Newsom seems to be leaving that part - the hard part - up to someone else.