Drug Czar Doesn't Like Phrase "War On Drugs"

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

R. Gil Kerlikowske, the new White House drug czar, thinks the United States should opt for something slightly less bellicose than the phrase "war on drugs" when it comes to addressing the nation's drug problems.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Kerlikowske said the United States drug policy needs to shift the emphasis from incarceration to treatment.

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," Kerlikowske told the Journal. "We're not at war with people in this country."

Kerlikowske did not offer up an alternative phrase, though if previous nomenclatural adjustments by the Obama team are any indication, any new phraseology may lack the same punch. Merits aside, it's fair to say that "Overseas Contingency Operation," the administration's re-branding of the "War On Terror," doesn't have quite the same ring as the more hawkish term did.

Though Kerlikowske's statements to the Journal are particularly blunt, the Obama administration has already made moves to reorient the country's response to the drug trade and addiction. In March, Attorney General Eric Holder said that federal agents would only target medical marijuana dispensaries when they violated state and federal law. Under the Bush administration, medical marijuana distributors were targeted even if they complied with state laws.

Last week, the administration joined a federal judge in urging Congress to equalize punishments for crack dealers and users with those for dealers and users of powdered cocaine. The administration argued that this disparity in sentencing was unfair to African American communities, where crack-cocaine has historically been more prevalent.

In tapping Kerlikowske for the cabinet-level position, President Obama selected a law enforcement veteran who is no stranger to unorthodox methods of policing drugs. As Seattle's police chief, Kerlikowske permitted medical marijuana distributors to operate their businesses so long as they confined them to a few block radius in the city's business distract.

[novamba]

scottportraits2, I agree with your methodology, except that as if medical approval of medicines is not cumbersome enough already, we would add years of bureaucraatic manouvering, and end up with a dont ask dont tell type policy. We did not go through all of that to make cigarrettes legal, yet they kill more people every year than any other cause. Same for alcohol, and there are deadly diseases directly related to excessive alcohol consumption.

[scottportraits2]

I still think actual scientific studies by legitimate medical doctors, medical schools, and other research groups should lead the way in serving as pioneers (of new pain management for the public, and other therapeutic applications of cannabis).

The real opportunity would be to develop new and more sophisticated delivery systems for this plant's extracts. Some ideas include:
1) Inhalers (like for asthma); 2) trans-dermal patches; 3) liquid-gel capsules; 4) oral sprays (like breath or 'energy' sprays); 5) extracts boiled in oil (as the Israeli's use for their soldiers suffering from suicidal PTSD) ; 5) or refined by more sophisticated processes into other ingestible substances - even eye-drops !!

So long as the FDA, AMA, and DEA insist smoking anything is bad, the primitive, crude, but most widely used delivery system to date, namely, smoked and inhaled, remains the patient's only remedy.

(Note: Synthetic 'Marinol' costs about $300. for a month's supply; and it would be far cheaper to just extract the essential oils from the dried herbal plant).

Federal laws currently offers a 20 years sentence for extracting essential oil from the dried cannabis plant.

Get smart people. Let's put this in the hands of real doctors and researchers. Let's demand basic studies to determine basic things. Let's implement the whole program through pharmacies and 'dispensaries' like the models in California, with unintimidated doctors overseeing the research.

The real 'opportunity' here is to help people who suffer from disease. Plain and simple. Find new and better ways to ingest it, and study it in a clinically structured program - so the patients can get the most benefit from the new laws in 13 (and soon 19) states with medical cannabis exemptions.

Make it easy for Obama and his crew. Approach the whole thing from a scientific research angle. That way, he can keep creating "commissions to determine and study", and follow up studies, and more studies after that. Don't force his hand into making too great a leap, especially after all these years of 'reefer maddness' and harsh penalties.

Let real doctors and real patients decide what's best for us.

[violet2012]

OOPS - I forgot to mention how all the drug war victims and families deserve reparations for everything unconstitutional, done to them!

[violet2012]

Don?t forget how the fascist drug war ruined our paraphernalia industry. Busting business people, taking away their kids, stealing all their money, merchandise, and ruining their way of making a buck IS a war against people. I can go anywhere and buy the same products now, providing it was made in the good ole USA. US importers were targeted because we were competing with Americans, making a great product, at a reduced price, any problem there? Cops would go into stores in the 80?s, bust people, treat them like criminals, throw merchandise around, break things and act like they were beyond respect, over PIPES, people! This War on Drugs is a disastrous war against the people that breeds contempt and hatred for our US Government who spends our tax money to prosecute us over one of the most useful plants on this earth. Call it what you want, if it feels like a war it is a war. It?s time to wake up to all the prescription drug freaks that are causing all kinds of trouble in our world, and getting a free ride because their drugs are ?legal.?

[Dgunner]

Hypotheticaly if marijuana were to be legalized and not made affordable to EVERYONE who uses ? The law would be counter productive to stop trafficking. The traffickers would just lower the price so the people who couldn't afford the governed price wuld have source to obtain what ever they wanted.Price and affordability is what relly regulates the market , not demand.

[nojoy01]

How long have we been fighting the War on drugs? 3 decades? Sounds like we will never win no matter what you call it.
Posted by endrepubs at 5:38 PM : May 15, 2009

3 decades? That's all? Perhaps we should be prepared for a long term commitment. After all, it took the Vietnamese at least 60 years to kick everybody out of their country. That's one of the things about the US ya gotta love. Whether it's in politics, love, or international relations a "long term commitment" translates to mean "I want to see results by the middle of next week" :))

[texasbeta]

We need more pot-heads and addicts in the US.
Posted by dwilson59

As opposed to people who daily use, Ritalin, Zoloft, Celexa, Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro, Luvox, Pristiq, Cymbalta, Ixel, Effexor, Tolvon, Zispin, Remeron, Avanza, Strattera, Mazanor, Edronax, Vivalan, Wellbutrin, Elavil, Anatranil, Adapin, Sinequan, Tofranil, Surmontil, Norpramin, Pamelor, Aventyl, Elepryl, Parnate, Emsam, Nardul, Aurorix, Manerix, Marplan, Buspar, Ariza, Serzone, Sedeil, Desyrel....and these are just the anti depressants. Face it...we have an entire country of drug addicts, legal addicts of drugs that make marijuana look like heroin

[dwilson59]

We need more pot-heads and addicts in the US.

[texasbeta]

"But make no mistake, we ARE, or should be, at war with drug dealers, importers, and trafficers.
Posted by nojoy01"


Really? I tell you what...you decriminalize and regulate, and you eliminate their power. Think! Think! Think! Look at reasonable expectations of our actions...do you really think trafficers can be eliminated? Tell me...have they in the entire history of mankind? Nope? Then maybe you should rethink it a bit.

[texasbeta]

There has NEVER EVER been a war on drugs. There has been a reorganization and classification regarding the penalties of drug users and sellers, by the 2nd largest lobby in the United States...the Prison lobby...in order to justify further tax money and an increase in the buiding of prisons. This is one of the biggest scams in our country's history...and why law enforement officials are nothing more than pimps. 70% of the people in prison are there for drug offenses. 70%! Over 60% of those are for marijuana offenses...this is NOTHING more than a money making scheme. Do they really think there is a winner or loser? The Iceman they found in the glacier almost intact in the 80s...frozen during the last ice age, before people started to even live in cities together...14000 years ago...what did he have in his backpack of hide? Psychadelic Mushrooms. Read some books...these drugs like shrooms and pot have been around long before writing. Our country was built early on by the hemp industry. This entire thing is a scam.

STOP pretending like we are idiots and you can confuse us with your rhetoric Mr Govt man...the only ones you are fooling are the sheep on the right, and they still think there are WMDs in Iraq. It doesn't take much really for them