Rockefeller and the Drug Plan

It is to Nelson Rockefeller’s credit that he has developed a program for New York drug addicts which contemplates their physical segregation. For his pains he has been condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which pro- poses to file a protest against Governor Rockefeller’s plan for the compulsory removal of drug addicts upon the complaint of a third party. The Governor’s idea is that a drug addict should be sequestered for a period of at least three years during which he would be treated by experts.

The ACLU’s position is that the removal of drug addicts amounts to incarceration, and that the Supreme Court has ruled that an addict cannot be called, in effect, a criminal, or treated as one, in the absence of due process. The Supreme Court decision in question was 1964’s Robinson vs. California. Which decision, however, left open the right of a state to remove drug addicts where the general welfare was concerned, conceding that to do so “might involve periods of involuntary confinement.”

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William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

It is to Nelson Rockefeller’s credit that he has developed a program for New York drug addicts which contemplates their physical segregation. For his pains he has been condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which pro- poses to file a protest against Governor Rockefeller’s plan for the compulsory removal of drug addicts upon the complaint of a third party. The Governor’s idea is that a drug addict should be sequestered for a period of at least three years during which he would be treated by experts.

The ACLU’s position is that the removal of drug addicts amounts to incarceration, and that the Supreme Court has ruled that an addict cannot be called, in effect, a criminal, or treated as one, in the absence of due process. The Supreme Court decision in question was 1964’s Robinson vs. California. Which decision, however, left open the right of a state to remove drug addicts where the general welfare was concerned, conceding that to do so “might involve periods of involuntary confinement.”