According to the Washington Post President Obama is set to nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as Drug Czar today. The Post also reports that the Obama administration will remove the position's Cabinet-level status -- overturning an elevation of the office under President George W. Bush. The Post says the decision to nominate him was delayed over the last month as information of drug arrests involving his stepson emerged.
While I'm disappointed that President Obama has nominated a police chief instead of a major public health advocate as drug czar, I'm cautiously optimistic that Kerlikowske will support President Obama's drug policy reform agenda.
What gives me hope is the fact that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments in the United States over the last decade. The city's syringe exchange programs are well established and harm reduction is well integrated in Seattle's approach to local drug policy. Marijuana has been legal in Washington State for medical purposes for a decade. In 2003, Seattle voters passed a ballot initiative making marijuana arrests the lowest law enforcement priority. And the King County Bar Association has demonstrated national leadership in exploring alternatives to current prohibitionist policies.
While Kerlikowske has not spoken out in favor of any of these reforms, he is clearly familiar with them and has not been a forceful opponent. Given the high regard in which he is held by other police chiefs around the country, Kerlikowske has the potential to provide much needed national leadership in implementing the commitments that Barack Obama made during the campaign. He also surely recognizes that substance abuse or run-ins with the law can touch anyone, including his own family. He will hopefully advocate for treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent drug law offenders.
As a presidential candidate, Senator Obama said the 'war on drugs is an utter failure' and that he believes in 'shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach.' He also called for eliminating the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, repealing the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs to reduce HIV/AIDS, and stopping the U.S. Justice Department from undermining state medical marijuana laws. The Drug Policy Alliance will do everything in our power to ensure that Kerlikowske is thoroughly vetted at his confirmation hearings, and held accountable to the President's commitments and standards.
Ethan Nadelmann is the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance
Follow Ethan Nadelmann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EthanNadelmann
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And let the 500,000 plus African American males out of prison for non-violen
The country boys who house them outside the metro areas are going to have to find other jobs besides housing minorities in dozens of god awful redneck towns in rural america. F-the whole process.
Billy Bob needs to get a job making an HONEST living.
We need to speak out on the issue and have zero tolerance for any such incidents. Discussion is great, but action is what will get things done. 99problems
Beside police agencies that benefit from anti-Marij
Stand up people & demand an end to this waste, fraud & corruption
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RESIST THE PHONY WAR ON DRUGS!
Imagine how many new schools and hospitals and all the green technology we could afford if pot was taxed. Taxes are the only thing that will let Government legalize it anyway, so let's pay the taxes, get it regulated, stop the drug cartels, and end the madness!
Americans must wake up to the fact that our government agencies at the federal level have been so corrupted by access to all the black market cash, that we may never be able to repair the systemic damage they have caused.
Imagine a sane world, a world where people's welfare takes priority over the welfare of large corporatio
Let's legalize the stuff already.