The White House's drug-enforcement office.

Rep. Jim Ramstad's name is bouncing around as a possible "drug czar" — the name given the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Ramstad, a Minnesota Republican, is in recovery himself and has been a longtime proponent of treatment for drug abuse. […]

Ramstad has consistently voted against medical marijuana in Congress, opposing an effort to prevent the federal government from raiding or arresting medical marijuana clubs in states where it is legal.

Of course Ramstad supports treatment. Everybody says they support treatment. Bush’s sitting drug czar, John P. Walters, can’t shut up about how much he adores treatment. And at a press conference in Seattle, City Attorney Tom Carr stood next to the drug czar to oppose I-75 at a detox facility that prizes treatment. But Walters, Carr, and the like ruthlessly defend a policy to keep arresting record numbers of people for low-level drug offenses while we only have enough funding to help one in five people who seek treatment.

This is the bait-and-switch rhetoric that emerged under the Bush Administration. If Obama picks Ramstad, expect the same line of bullshit. Keep in mind, this is the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and our country’s drug policy is clear: We lock up people caught with drugs. That’s where the 70 percent of the money goes. Not treatment. Not to needle exchange that saves lives. Not to education programs that actually reduce drug abuse. The remaining 30 percent is divided into some treatment, the counter-productive D.A.R.E. programs and those far-fetched anti-drug ads. But if Ramstad is pushing raids on medical marijuana patients—the most repugnant aspect of federal drug policy—he’s sure not going to prioritize treatment or consider a change to "the failed policies of the last eight years."

Meanwhile, change is already coming on the state level.