Frank Sinatra, who told Tony Bennett to lay off the hard stuff years ago, is turning over in his grave! The same Tony Bennett who went on the Howard Stern Show and said 9/11 was the fault of the United States and then had to apologize to the entire country for saying so, has done it again.
According to MSNBC, this time Tony Bennett was grandstanding at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party over Whitney Houston’s death by saying: “First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston, I’d like every person in this room to campaign to legalize drugs.” All my sadness over Whitney’s death came to a screeching halt when he continued, “Let’s legalize drugs like they did in Amsterdam. No one’s hiding or sneaking around corners to get it. They go to a doctor to get it.” Hello? In case he missed it, many celebrity doctors have proven they are part of the problem!
Amy Winehouse is dead because in England drug laws are so lax, that getting drugs such as heroin has been made easy through decriminalization, which has clearly not worked out in Amy’s favor. It was finally concluded Amy died from alcohol poisoning, alcohol being a legal and widely available addictive substance.
And then for Tony Bennett to say the United States should follow the Amsterdam model “because of its success” is absolutely and totally irresponsible. It’s times like this where I am glad I was not in the room because I would have been all up in his grill.
Working with many drug policy experts, I have learned straight from the media in Amsterdam that the grass is not greener on the other side. Amsterdam has had to go backwards on their drug laws, making them more stringent because of drug tourism and drug zombies wandering around in the streets and alleyways. That's not what the doctor ordered!
Just because Tony Bennett sang in a duo with Amy Winehouse does not make him an expert on U.S. and global drug policy and it certainly shows that he has no idea what he’s rambling on about. He needs to stick to what he does best and sing the songs we love - to help us forget our troubles, not grandstand over things he is clearly very confused about and give us nightmares!
[Update: Feb. 13, 2012]
Today, Bill Bennett made some remarks of his own about Tony Bennett's comments regarding Whitney and drugs. On his show "Bill Bennett's Morning in America" he called Tony Bennett "an idiot." Nuf said!