Unnecessary and Intrusive: REAL ID is a real threat to Colorado0

• October 20, 2006

If the Colorado Legislature does nothing but implement the REAL ID Act, as the federal government demands, then after May, 2008, all Colorado driver’s license holders will have to be “re-enrolled” under as of yet unknown regulations decided by the federal Department of Homeland Security. In other words, the state driver’s license will become a de-facto national ID and the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles will be little more than a branch office of Homeland Security. Moreover, Colorado lawmakers (and thus Coloradoans) will have little or no say as to how driver’s licenses are issued, what information will be attached to the license or who will have access to that information.

Doing it for The Children: The drug war against local control and parental responsibility0

• September 28, 2006

John Walters, the federal “Drug Czar,” recently told the editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer: “I believe there will come a day when we’ll wonder what took us so long to do drug testing in schools.”

Breaking Ranks0

• July 21, 2006

House Bill 06-1145, signed into law in May, creates a State Methamphetamine Task Force in Colorado that has as part of its mission “to examine the prevention, intervention, and treatment of the abuse of methamphetamine.”
This would be a radical departure from the traditional drug war orthodoxy of trying to arrest and incarcerate away the drug issue. Unfortunately, Colorado’s continued obedience to federal drug-war priorities means that fresh thinking on methamphetamine will continue to take a backseat to the national obsession with marijuana prohibition.

Federalism up in smoke0

• June 22, 2006

House Republicans will soon get a chance to cast a vote in favor of states’ rights, and against an over-reaching federal regulatory apparatus. In other words, two of the main principles Republicans claim to champion. That the issue at hand is medical marijuana, and Colorado has a voter-approved medical marijuana law, makes it all the more powerful an indicator of what Colorado Republicans really think about federalism.

Radical departure from traditional drug war orthodoxy0

• June 18, 2006

House Bill 1145, signed into law last month, creates but does not fund a state methamphetamine task force in Colorado.

Unfortunately, the bill also ensures a continuation of the currently failed drug war strategy of trying to arrest and incarcerate away the drug issue.