Drug policies or politics?

bkrueger — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:51:58 -0400

A visit from the White House drug czar to western North Carolina last year has raised questions in a congressional investigation into the politicization of the national drug policy office.

Drug czar John Walters met with GOP Reps. Patrick McHenry and Charles Taylor in their home districts in August, reports Barb Barrett.

The meetings, each with local sheriffs, were held behind closed doors but highlighted in local newspapers at the time. According to a memo and e-mails obtained by a House oversight committee, the visits appeared to be part of a larger program to have officials from the Office of National Drug Control Policy visit districts of vulnerable GOP members of Congress.

They included visits to 20 events across the nation to towns that an official described in an e-mail as “god awful places.”

On Aug. 1, Walters, director of the drug office, met with McHenry and six local sheriffs in Lenoir, in Caldwell County. There, they talked about sheriffs’ appreciation for specialized drug courts.

The same day, Walters held a press conference in Asheville with Taylor, who was in a tight race for re-election. Walters praised Taylor’s work combating methamphetamine.

Taylor lost his re-election bid in November to Democrat Heath Shuler.