From USA Today, 21May09 -
Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske says one of his top priorities is curtailing abuse of prescription drugs — such as the addictive painkiller OxyContin — which are readily available in the U.S.
“We get overly concerned about drugs coming in, but the pharmaceuticals are here already,” he said in an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY.
He says he’ll push for more states to adopt prescription-monitoring programs, databases in which doctors and pharmacists log prescriptions for addictive drugs so law enforcement can track them.
Kerlikowske, who became director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on May 7, described drug abuse as a “public health problem.” Yet the former Seattle police chief added, “That doesn’t mean law enforcement doesn’t have a role to play.”
On his first trip outside Washington since assuming his new role, Kerlikowske told a law enforcement crowd attending a drug initiative conference Wednesday that marijuana should stay illegal, but public health officials — not police — should lead efforts to reduce illegal drug use.
“Legalization isn’t in the president’s vocabulary, and it certainly isn’t in mine,” he told 300 federal agents and law enforcement officials.
I think it’s amazing that Kerlikowske still believes that Marijuana should be illegal. He is an intelligent man, and from what I have been told, he understands that Marijuana is non-toxic and therapeutic by helping to alleviate pain and can help cure various types of cancers. So why does he continue to support the prohibition?
It’s simple; he needs a job.
If Marijuana were legal, half of his job would be superfluous. In fact, if Marijuana were legal, it’s very likely that funding for his position would go away. It’s easy to question the credibility of person who’s job depends on Marijuana remaining legal and who continues to propagate a war that pits the American government against it’s citizens.
Regardless, it is nice to hear people in Washington clamber over the abuse of deadly prescription medicine instead of our non-toxic Wonder Plant, the mighty Marijuana.
Well he is still an officer of the law. Until we have a health official in the job of Drug Czar, they will always favor to keep marijuana illegal. They will never turn on their army of cops, DEA and Federal law officers, they just won’t. We may have a bit more fighting to do to get by a Drug Czar bent on keeping jobs over doing what is right!
My question is, when this War on Drugs is over and the dust clears, will there be war crimes against these drug warriors? Will there be any justice at all for the years of slavery that these policies have made, by locking up 2 million fellow brothers and sisters? If this was a true War (feels like it) there would be!
..”arrested for being smarter than an alcoholic”. Nice J.W.!
“alcoholics”
Mari…Scratch that, Cannibis is no more criminal than aiding in the escape of a runaway slave was 150 years ago. I was once brought a “plea offer” which included the outright lie that “since this is such a small jurisdiction it is unlikely that a record of this proceeding would ever make it into the state records”
My response was that the (lie) possibility that there would be no record of this obcenity would ,if anything, be a dealbreaker. I wanted to be able to one day bring my incredulous grandchildren to a place where I could prove to them that there once was a time when you could be arrested for being smarter than alcohics
I agree with Jillian.
It’s time to get loud!
The federal marijuana prohibition benefits not a single person in this country or the country as a whole. END IT!