Gil Kerlikowske

The Kinder, Gentler Drug Czar Still Wants to Lock You Up for Pot

Russ Belville | Posted 05.21.2012

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Czar, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Marijuana, Politics News

Sure, we all worry about the meth tweekers stealing cable off bridges, the coke fiends committing petty crimes, the heroin junkies trespassing and loitering, and the alcoholics crashing their cars and getting into fights, but does anybody really think smoking weed is leading people to harm others?

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The Obama Administration Is Wrong to Deny American Farmers a Profitable Crop

Eric Steenstra | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: Farming, Hemp Production, Hemp Legalization, Hemp, Farmers, Agriculture, Cannabis, Obama Drug Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, Obama Administration, Eric Holder, Industrial Hemp, Drug Policy, Politics News

Despite growing consumer demand for these eco-friendly and healthy products, the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation in the world that allows the importation and sale of hemp raw materials and finished goods, but bans its farmers from growing the crop.

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The Drug Czar's False Statement About Marijuana and Hemp Should Be a Bigger Scandal

Scott Morgan | Posted 04.29.2012

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, White House, Drug War, Hemp, Marijuana, Barack Obama, Drug Czar, Politics News

At its core, the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp is a simple matter of agriculture and economics that has nothing to do with drug policy at all, and shouldn't even be tied to the otherwise raging debate about marijuana laws in America.

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Painkiller Debate Rages On

Radley Balko | Posted 05.09.2012

Read More: Prescription Drug Addiction, Drug War, Oxycontin, Prescription Drugs, Gil Kerlikowske, Ondp, Chronic Pain, Painkillers, Dea, Prescription Painkillers, Politics News

If there's contention in the medical community about the risk and effectiveness of painkillers, the debate gets more heated still when it comes to what sort of public policy should govern how the drugs are used.

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Obama's Drug Czar Weighs In On Whitney Houston's Death

The Huffington Post | Leigh Owens | Posted 02.14.2012

Read More: Whitney Houston Dead, Whitney Houston Drugs, Whitney Houston Drug Use, Prescription Drug Addiction, Drug Addiction, Addiction, Gil Kerlikowske Whitney Houston, Gil Kerlikowske Prescription Drugs, Whitney Houston, Prescription Drug Use, Video, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, Prescription Drugs, Whitney Houston Death, Politics News

The death of singer Whitney Houston should serve to warn Americans about the danger of abusing prescription drugs, the nation's top drug official says...

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Fixing Our Drug Policy Will Require A Hatchet, Not A Scalpel

Scott Morgan | Posted 02.07.2012

Read More: Marijuana, John Walters, Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Czar, Medical Marijuana, War on Drugs, Obama Drug Policy, Barack Obama, Drug Policy, Politics News

Despite our disappointment with the substance of Obama's policy on controlled substances, we can and should applaud the president for at least understanding that the thoughtless tough-on-drugs pandering of the 80s and 90s has no place in modern American politics.

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White House Rejects Petition To Legalize Marijuana

HuffingtonPost.com | Lucia Graves | Posted 12.31.2011

Read More: Leap, White House, We the People, Gil Kerlikowske, Obama Administration, Marijuana Crackdown, White House Petition, Marijuana Legalization, Pot Legalization, Obama Marijuana, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The White House has rejected several marijuana legalization petitions, one of which called on the federal government to stop interfering...

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Drug Czar "Too Busy" to Meet With Fellow Cops

Norm Stamper | Posted 10.07.2011

Back in June, representatives of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition marched from the National Press Club to the Office of National Drug Control Policy headquarters. Our mission: to hand-deliver a copy of our new report.

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On 40th Anniversary Of War On Drugs, Cops Decry Obama's Drug Policy

HuffingtonPost.com | Lucia Graves | Posted 08.15.2011

Read More: Leap, Police, Richard Nixon, Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, 112th Congress, Obama Administration, Obama, Drugs, War on Drugs, Marijuana Legalization, Drug Wars, Drug Policy, Cops, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Forty years after President Richard Nixon first declared a war on drugs, the officers who fought in it are calling for a truce. Forme...

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Why Barack Obama Loves the War on Drugs

Stanton Peele | Posted 08.03.2011

Read More: Internet Town Hall, Town Hall Meetings, Barack Obama, Drug Policy, Drug Addiction, Kofi Annan, Ruth Dreiffus, Richard Branson, Decriminalizing Drygs, Global Commission on Drug Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, George Schultz, Heroin, Drug Tsar, Cocaine, Politics News

Do you remember the scene when Barack Obama opened the government to suggestions from the audience (the American public) in the first ever Internet To...

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Report: Drug War Has Failed, Governments Should Explore Legalizing Marijuana

AP | By JONATHAN M. KATZ | Posted 08.01.2011

Read More: Global War on Drugs, Carlos-Fuentes, Ronald Reagan, Global Commission on Drug Policy, Marijuana, Drug War, White-House-Drug-Czar, Brazil, United Nations, Richard Branson, Mexico, Rafael Lemaitre, United States, Drugs, Kofi Annan, Office of National Drug Control Policy, War on Drugs, US, Paul Volcker, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cannabis, Greece, Opiates, George P Schultz, Richard Nixon, Colombia, Gil Kerlikowske, Un, Cocaine, World News

NEW YORK -- The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a com...

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Chicago's Next Top Cop: Search Down To Three Finalists, Sources Say

Chicago Sun-Times | Posted 06.26.2011

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, Chicago Police Chief, Garry McCarthy, Jody Weis, Cpd, Rahm Emanuel, Al Wysinger, Chicago Police Department, Chicago News

The competition to become Chicago's next police superintendent has come down to a three-man race between a veteran Chicago cop and a pair of outsiders...

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Finally: Obama to Eliminate Narcotic Abuse!

Stanton Peele | Posted 06.20.2011

Read More: Obama Administration, Addiction & Recovery; OxyContin, Prescription Painkillers, Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Czar, Painkiller Addiction, OxyContin Addiction, Prescription Addiction, Home News

Americans are becoming more dependent on drugs, despite years -- decades -- of our War on Drugs. Somehow, confiscating marijuana, cocaine, and illicit painkillers has not reversed our addictive proclivities.

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Obama Drug Czar Could Be Chicago's Next Top Cop

AP | By ALICIA A. CALDWELL | Posted 06.20.2011

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske Rahm Emanuel, Obama Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Czar, Chicago Police Superintendent, Chicago Police Department, Gil Kerlikowske Chicago, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Chicago News

WASHINGTON -- The White House drug czar says he wants to be Chicago's next top cop. Gil Kerlikowske, head of the White House Office of National Drug ...

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Obama Drug Czar Among Outsiders In Running For Chicago's Top Cop

Chicago News Cooperative | Posted 06.19.2011

Read More: Chicago Police Chief, Chicago Top Cop, Rahm Emanuel Gil Kerlikowske, Gil Kerlikowske Chicago, Obama Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, Chicago News

Despite calls for the promotion of a new police superintendent from within the department's ranks, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel could yet do as he did in ...

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The Obama Administration's Public Health Approach to Drug Policy

R. Gil Kerlikowske | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Barack Obama, Drug Policy, Politics News

I understand, from firsthand experience, that we cannot arrest or incarcerate our way out of a problem as complex as drug use, and that a "War on Drugs" mentality is too simplistic an approach to be effective.

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Drug Czar: Prop 19 Could Spark Court Action From Feds

AP | LISA LEFF | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Proposition 19, Prop.19, Prop 19, Gil Kerlikowske, Los Angeles News

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials haven't ruled out taking legal action if California voters approve a ballot initiative that would legalize rec...

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Drug Czar Blames Rising Teen Pot Use on Medical Cannabis Laws Rather Than on His Own Failed Policies

Paul Armentano | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Cannabis, Monitoring the Future, Medical Cannabis, Marijuana, Norml, Drug Czar, Medical Marijuana, Obama, Gil Kerlikowske, Prohibition, Politics News

For Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske and his mindless rhetoric, never forget the words of novelist Upton Sinclair, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

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WATCH: Drug Czar Confronted At Press Conference

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Marijuana, Marijuana Use, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drug War, War on Drugs, Gil Kerlikowske, Pot Use, Firedoglake, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Drug Czar, Prop 19, Video, Politics News

More than 850,000 people were arrested for marijuana violations in 2009 -- the second biggest haul in American history, according to the annual Unifor...

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Clinton, Bush And Obama Drug Czars Come Out Against California's Marijuana Legalization Measure

The Huffington Post | Nick Wing | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: California, California Proposition 19, Proposition 19, Marijuana, Marijuana Legalization, California Marijuana Legalization, Gil Kerlikowske, John Walters, Barry McCaffrey, Lee Brown, Bob Martinez, William Bennett, Politics News

Six directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy over the previous 3 administrations penned a cooperative op-ed Wednesday in opposition to ...

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Obama Drug Control Strategy Focuses On Prevention, Treatment

AP | SAM HANANEL | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Obama Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Obama Drugs, Drug War, Obama Drug Policy, Drug Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, Drug Policy Reform, Politics News

WASHINGTON — The White House is putting more resources into drug prevention and treatment, part of President Barack Obama's pledge to treat ille...

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Real Change or Changing Rhetoric? Monitoring the Shift in US Drug Policy

Allan Clear | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Hiv, Harm Reduction Coalition, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Needle Exchange, Gil Kerlikowske, Global Drug Policy, Harm Reduction, Obama, Drugs, Syringe Exchange, Drug Policy, Aids, Vienna, Drug Czar, Politics News

Since President Obama's election, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has been making noises about a shift in approach and priorities towards addressing drugs and drug problems.

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Mass Incarceration: A Destroyer of People of Color and Their Communities

Jamaal Bell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Whites, Latinos, The Sentencing Project, Minnesota, Policy Change, Obama Administration, Drugs, Gil Kerlikowske, Reentry, Criminal Justice, Blacks, Native Americans, Mass Incarceration, Prisons, Racial Disparities, Rebuild Resources, War on Drugs, Politics News

Instead of having our Drug Czar focus on addiction recovery and prevention programs, how about changing the policy of our racialized criminal justice system?

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Associated Press: After 40 Years, $1 Trillion, US Drug War "Has Failed to Meet Any of Its Goals"

Paul Armentano | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Paul Armentano, Cannabis, Norml, Marijuana, National Drug Control Strategy, Mexico, Drug Czar, Thc, Drug War, Obama, Pot, Legalization, Mexican Drug War, Gil Kerlikowske, Politics News

The Associated Press has taken the entire U.S. drug war strategy and raked it over the coals. It's about damn time!

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Obama's Drug Strategy All Talk, No Walk

Michael Whitney | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Obama Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Marijuana, Gil Kerlikowske, Marijuana Legalization, War on Drugs, Obama Drug Policy, Pot, Barack Obama, Politics News

It's clear that if the administration really wants to continue -- and win -- a War on Drugs, the fastest, cleanest, best way to do so is to cut off the cartels' bloodstream by legalizing marijuana.

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