Taber Urges Caning Of Drug Dealers

Young drug traffickers should be imprisoned for life and caned every week until they reveal their suppliers, says Ron Taber, a conservative Republican running for state school superintendent.

A rival candidate, King County Councilman Chris Vance, calls that “nutty” and extreme.

Taber said in a news release Wednesday that he told the state Libertarian Party convention in Spokane over the weekend that adults who supply kids with drugs should be executed. He also called for a crackdown on teens who sell to other teens.

“Minors who sell drugs should get life sentences with weekly canings until they reveal their supplier, after which they become eligible for parole,” Taber told the group.

In a later interview, he said the threat of canings would be a mighty deterrent to drug trafficking, even if it is never used.

“We do not beat our children with sticks in this country,” Vance said in an interview. He said he was aghast that Taber would suggest such harsh treatment of minors - much less put out a press release trying to draw attention to it.

Vance said Taber’s position on drugs isn’t consistent, either. As director of the Governor’s Commission on Youth in the early 1970s, Tabor advocated decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, and has criticized DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).

Neither canings nor criminal sentencing are within the scope of the school department, he said. Taber agreed, but said he could urge the Legislature to adopt his views.