Rick Steves, Drug Policy Provocateur

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 04.01.08 | 1:42 PM ET

When I interviewed Rick Steves last summer, he touched on how his travel experiences in Europe have soured him on America’s drug war. “People in America think you’re either hard on drugs or soft on drugs,” he said. “They say Europeans are soft on drugs. I think you’re either hard on drugs or you’re smart on drugs, and I think Europeans are smart on drugs as opposed to waging war on drugs.”

Steves has been talking up his feelings about this for years now. His Web site offers media the use of this photo of him at Seattle Hempfest, and YouTube has video of the speech he delivered there.

In today’s New York Times, Timothy Egan declares that Steves has become “a most unlikely voice on behalf of ending the tragedy of the drug war.”

Writes Egan: “[I]t’s been fascinating to watch the reaction since Steves started speaking out on this. Sponsors of his television shows have hardly blinked. Cops and conservatives have told him how much they agree with him.”

As I’ve learned, Steves is willing to reconsider a whole range of issues—even the value of Tijuana.

You go, Rick.