Fiscal conservatives and liberals teaming up to change NM’s drug policy

From Capitol Report New Mexico.com - New Mexico spends an estimated $22 million a year in prison and probation costs for non-violent drug offenders. Is there a better use of that money? Some fiscal conservatives think so and they’re joining with liberals to try to change the way New Mexico — as well as the nation – handles drug users. The Rio Grande Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Albuquerque, and the Drug Policy Alliance co-hosted a forum last Tuesday (Oct. 25) that brought a number of Republican and Democratic state lawmakers as well as state government officials together to talk about finding common ground “to map a more rational public safety and health response to drug policy and criminal justice.” (Full disclosure: Capitol Report New Mexico is funded by the Rio Grande Foundation.) In a nutshell, fiscal conservatives who think there are more financially efficient ways to deal with the drug problem than a ”lock ‘em up” mentality are working with traditional liberals who have generally considered the war on drugs a failure from a policy and civil liberties perspective. Read more

Fiscal conservatives and liberals teaming up to change NM’s drug policy