Rep Tom Marino (R-PA) has been nominated for the job of Drug Czar. Representing the 10th District of Pennsylvania, here’s the chart since 2010, the last redistricting:
This suggests Marino’s selection is at least partially influenced by the safety of his district. Still, if confirmed, this will require a special election in order to replace him – giving the Democrats a chance to embarrass the GOP on the national stage. While they have come close, they have yet to flip a national seat; at the local level, however, they are reportedly doing quite well, indicating a great deal of dissatisfaction with the GOP.
It did occur to me to wonder if Marino might not actually be favored by Trump, but marked as disagreeable and to be replaced by a Trump loyalist (see this post for more on this general speculation). However, he has a Trump score (that is, he votes in conformation to Trump’s wishes), as of this writing, of 94.7% according to FiveThirtyEight, so on objective measures he seems loyal enough; however, subjective measures are much more difficult to ascertain.
And will he fit in with the Trump Administration? WaPo has a report:
As a congressman, Marino called for a national program of mandatory inpatient substance abuse treatment for nonviolent drug offenders. “One treatment option I have advocated for years would be placing non-dealer, nonviolent drug abusers in a secured hospital-type setting under the constant care of health professionals,” he said at a hearing last year.
Forced inpatient treatment in a hospital-slash-prison would presumably include drug users who are not necessarily drug abusers. Only about 21 percent of current marijuana users meet diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence, for instance. The other 79 percent do not need treatment for their drug use.
Marino acknowledged that implementing such a policy nationwide would “take a lot of money.”
Whether he’ll push for such a strategy as drug czar remains an open question. Beyond that, the office’s track record on meeting its drug policy goals is not the greatest. In 2010, the office set a series of ambitious goals to reduce overall drug use, overdoses and drugged-driving incidents. A 2015 Government Accountability Office report concluded that it failed to meet any of them.
They also note the Drug Czar has less to do with policy than with coordination. Still, he would seem to fit right in with an Administration that has more than its share of fringe extremists as he puts forward a solution in search of a problem. Perhaps he has better ideas about the opioid crisis, which is a legitimate problem.
