Has Obama Made a Good Choice for Drug Czar?

Jim Finnel

Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will likely be Obama’s nominee for director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, commonly referred to as the drug czar. It appears that we may soon be faced with the most promising drug czar ever to occupy the position.

To be clear, Kerlikowske is not a friend of drug policy reform to any extent I’m aware of. What matters here is that I see no evidence that he is a vicious drug warrior of the sort commonly associated with the drug czar post. Given that ONDCP is mandated to oppose reform efforts and has typically embraced that role, a less confrontational and reefer madness-driven drug czar is really the best case scenario from a drug policy reform perspective.

Under Kerlikowske, Seattle has been a model for sensible marijuana policy, including the famous Seattle Hempfest at which the Seattle Police Department performs a public safety role while declining to make marijuana arrests. Following the passage of a 2004 lowest priority initiative, the city’s already-low rate of marijuana prosecutions fell even further, suggesting that Kerlikowske was responsive to the will of voters.

In that sense, he offers a dramatic departure from ONDCP’s shameful history of undermining state medical marijuana laws and inserting itself into state politics for the purpose of thwarting reform efforts. In an office typically run by military officials and political hacks, Kerlikowske would bring expertise in community policing and public relations.

As drug czar, I have no doubt that Gil Kerlikowske would oppose drug legalization and serve as our primary opponent on many issues. Nevertheless, at first glance, my gut instinct is that after several drug czars from hell, a guy from Seattle doesn’t sound so bad.



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Source: StoptheDrugWar.org
Copyright: 2008 StoptheDrugWar.org
Contact: drcnet@drcnet.org
Website: Has Obama Made a Good Choice for Drug Czar? | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
 
i saw a report, cnn/msnbc? about the admin wanting to find new terms for the war on terrorisim, perhaps they will find a better name for whats going on with drugs in this country. i wouldn't be surprized to see czar disappear also. although a pile of turds will smell the same no matter what you call it.
 
One more time: The war on drugs is the cover used to stamp out peoples movements against dictators and fashism around the world. There should be no department let alone a "czar". Hell, even the Russians kicked the czars out years ago.
You will continue to be amazed at how little change "real change" will come to mean.
Like the poet said, there ain't no there, there. and there won't be much change in change. Same money, same money/power whores running the show. Only the billboard was changed to suck in the public to pretty much the same old show.
 
Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Roman or Byzantine emperor (or, according to Byzantine ideology, the most elevated position adjacent to the one held by the Byzantine monarch) .. due to recognition by another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch).

Occasionally, the word could be used to designate other, non-Christian, supreme rulers. In Russia and Bulgaria the imperial connotations of the term were blurred with time and, by the 19th century, it had come to be viewed as an equivalent of King.[2][3]

The modern languages of these countries use it as a general term for a monarch.[4][5] For example, the title of the Bulgarian monarchs in the 20th century was not generally interpreted as imperial.

"Tsar" was the official title of the supreme ruler in the following states:

A newer version via Wikipedia of the Drug Czar:
The term Drug Czar is a name for the person who directs drug-control policies in the United States. The title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International which reported that “Senators... voted 62-34 to establish a ‘drug czar’ who would have overall responsibility for U.S. drug policy.”[1] Since then, several ad hoc executive positions in both the United States and United Kingdom have been established which have been subsequently referred to in this manner.

Contents
1 United States
1.1 Nixon and Ford administrations
1.2 Carter administration
1.3 Reagan administration
1.4 Since 1988
2 United Kingdom
3 References



United States

Nixon and Ford administrations
Jerome Jaffe, head of the Special Office for Drug Abuse Prevention
Myles Ambrose, head of the Office of Drug Abuse and Law Enforcment (ODALE)
Dr. Robert Dupont, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and head of the Narcotics Treatment Administration

Carter administration
Peter Bourne, Director of the National Drug Control Policy
Mathea Falco, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics

Reagan administration
Carlton Turner PhD, ScD, Director of the Drug Abuse Policy Office
D. Ian McDonald, MD. Deputy Assistant to the President, Drug Abuse Policy Office
 
I do not want to insult anyone's age or participation, but I have been actively involved for over twenty years and there has been change; everywhere. I know what you are going to say, "I live in liberal California." I am talking the entire country. We continue to educate and put to rest the myths once and for all. We will see the time come when we are able to make our own decisions. When that time comes, I am not sure.
 
perhaps this guy realizes that control of regulation of soft drugs like
alcohol, nicotene[tobacco,] and MJ works better than prohitition and is cheaper and generates revenue.......
 
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