Republican Platform

The Republican Party Platform is complete (not that anybody pays attention to a party’s platform, but it’s still interesting to see what they come up with).
Again, it’s rather remarkable the degree to which drug policy is avoided. No mention of the terms: cocaine, marijuana, heroin, drug war, drug policy, 4th Amendment, etc.
Interestingly, they they have a section about ridding the streets of violent gangs, but never mention drugs in that section — instead they use it to bemoan that they’re “composed largely of illegal aliens.”
In their section of “Locking up Criminals” they note:

We support mandatory sentencing provisions for gang conspiracy crimes, violent or sexual offenses against children, rape, and assaults resulting in serious bodily injury.

Does that mean that they don’t support mandatory sentencing for drug offenses?
They do have a section on Illegal Drugs, but it’s quite vague

Continuing the Fight against Illegal Drugs
The human toll of drug addiction and abuse hits all segments of American society. It is an international problem as well, with most of the narcotics in this country coming from beyond our borders. We will continue the fight against producers, traffickers,
and distributors of illegal substances through the collaboration of state, federal, and local law enforcement. We support the work of those who help individuals struggling with addiction, and we support strengthening drug education and prevention programs to avoid addiction. We endorse state and local initiatives, such as Drug Courts, that are trying new approaches to curbing drug abuse and diverting first-time offenders to rehabilitation.

And the war on drugs internationally is mentioned once (other than a passing reference to illegal drugs in Afghanistan):

In an era of porous borders, the war on drugs and the war on terror have become a single enterprise. We salute our allies in the fight against this evil, especially
the people of Mexico and Colombia, who have set an example for their neighbors.

I got a sad chuckle out of this one…

Securing Our Civil Liberties
Because our Constitution is based on the principles of individual liberty and limited government, we must always ensure that law enforcement respects the civil and constitutional rights of the people. While we wage war on terrorism in foreign lands, it is sometimes necessary for intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials to pursue terrorist threats at home. However, no expansion of governmental powers should occur at the expense of our constitutional liberties.

One little item raised a bit of a flag in the section on “Protecting Law Enforcement Officers.” It included:

Criminals should be barred from seeking monetary damages for injuries they incur while committing a crime.

Not sure, but I wonder if that means that you wouldn’t be able to seek damages if you had a gram of pot and they smashed down your door, and accidentally killed your dogs and your mother-in-law, and shot off your right leg with a .50-caliber machine gun in the process of arresting you.
One last interesting bit — highlighted in a boxed statement is the following:

The innocent have far fewer rights than the accused. We call on Congress to correct this imbalance by sending to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of crime victims.

There are so many things wrong with that first sentence…