Mar 16, 2009
There are a lot of colorful characters who, for fun and profit, devote their lives to prolonging the war on marijuana users, no matter how much damage it causes to society or how little it does to stem drug trade violence.
Many of these drug warriors are clearly unhinged, their views informed more by blind zealotry than by sober policy analysis. That's why I hesitate to post this video of longtime anti-drug culture warrior Joyce Nalepka attempting to disrupt a recent MPP-sponsored press conference regarding faulty drug tests administered by law enforcement. After all, there are shaky folks on all sides of the marijuana policy debate, and I don't think it's right to single out the clowns on such a serious matter.
However, as Nalepka herself points out in this exchange with MPP's Rob Kampia, she has drug policy experience – if not expertise – and the larger, federal drug war establishment hasn't exactly tried to disassociate itself from her. She's president of Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge and was once president of the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth, which Nancy Reagan chaired during her husband's presidency.
So who am I to protect her if she wants to make a fool of herself? Here she is, squaring off against Rob, in all her indignant, delusional glory ...