- Ramstad, a recovering alcoholic himself, has been a major advocate for treatment based approaches to dealing with drug addiction.
- There are rumblings that the Rammer may be the GOP nominee for Governor of Minnesota in 2010 and this appointment would take him out of the gubernatorial picture.
Not everyone, however, is as enthusiastic about the possibility of a Czar Ramstad.
A coalition of advocacy and nonprofit organizations, including the National Black Police Association, sent a letter today to President-elect Obama preemptively pushing back against the nomination of Rep. James Ramstad (R-Minn.) to be head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or “Drug Czar.”
The coalition, which includes civic and drug-policy reform organizations, cites his past opposition to medical marijuana, needle exchange and sentencing reform as reasons for concern.
While I share the NBPA’s desire to see sentencing reform and a different approach to drug policy in general, I don’t think they should get all worked up about a Ramstad appointment. With the economy in meltdown and major health and energy initiatives on the horizon, I don’t think there is going to be much movement on the drug front over the next few years regardless of who gets the appointment.
Seems like a decent guy. As I tracked Bachmann’s and Kline’s voting records over the last year, Ramstad was often in opposition to them and aligned with McCollum/Ellison/Walz etc. This shows me, that although he has different ideology, he is also about practicality and pragmatism, in other words, good governing.
His support of Peterson is kind of disgusting but what could you expect, and if he ever supported “teen challenge” that is kind of also disgusting, but in totality he seems like the kind of conservative we can respect if not agree with. Policy before politics usually.
In addition, he is being honored for his help in pushing through of the mental health parity bill.
“While I share the NBPA’s desire to see sentencing reform and a different approach to drug policy in general, I don’t think they should get all worked up about a Ramstad appointment. With the economy in meltdown and major health and energy initiatives on the horizon, I don’t think there is going to be much movement on the drug front over the next few years regardless of who gets the appointment.”
That has to be about the crappyest argument I have ever seen. He’s wrong on the issues, but we probably weren’t going to get anything done anyway? What kind of message is that?
As I have written before, I am more concerned about the enforcement arm of this agency, DEA. Drug Policy is nice and dandy for Jim but, when economic times get tight, drug usage goes way up. All over the world. The importation of drugs is a major issue.
Some of you are so ‘high-minded’ that you can’t see the forest because of the trees.
I can’t support a guy that blatantly lied at a news conference about Ashwin Madia, attributing the DCCC ad that got an F on “truth test” to Madia and his campaign….this type of partisianship is not what we need out of any of our elected leaders, and certainly not from a Presidential appointee……and I actually voted for Rammer in the last nine elections because I thought he was better than that….boy was I wrong!
Why can’t Republicans find jobs in the private sector?
Ramstad doesn’t need to work. I believe that he and his wife are very wealthy. Anything he does will be purely for public service. I’d much rather that he be my Governor than Obama’s Drug Czar.