Full Circle

The new drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, recently had a Q & A session with the Wall Street Journal. In this interview he doesn't hesitate in admitting that the United States has been fighting a losing war. In fact he wants to end this so called "war" altogether. Finally someone is recognizing the federal governments failures with this public health issue.

What do you mean when you talk about how our drug efforts have been in a silo with either/or choices?

The either/or to me has been you either support law enforcement and money and funds and resources, that includes international, border protection and domestic, or you support treatment and whose going to pay the cost of treatment. What I'd like to do is break down those barriers that kind of exist. It really isn't an either/or.

The other part of breaking down the barrier is to completely and forever end the war analogy, the war on drugs.

Since I used to stand in front of the helicopter for President Nixon who brought the term in vogue, it's fitting that I'm almost back in the same spot and trying to put an end to the war analogy.

Kerlikowske has been involved since the beginning and is showing signs of his deeper understanding of this issue. His law enforcement background blended with the belief that this is a public health issue at heart, could lead to promising changes for America. He has been on the front lines of this "drug war" and realized no one can win if it continues. I think this L.A. Times editorial summarizes it best.

It's in that context that Kerlikowske's comments matter: By thinking of drug users as combatants in a war, the nation militarized a health problem. The phrase itself shaped flawed thinking and yielded disastrous policies. When he campaigned for the presidency, Obama promised bold change on drugs. The old paradigm should follow the now-discarded phrase into history.

In "Paying With Our Sins" the N.Y. Times has some more radical opinions on how to speed up America's recovery from this recession. Author Nick Gillespie takes the economists opinion and questions how much the extra revenue America could raise by taxing then country's vices.

Based on estimates from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Americans spend at least $64 billion a year on illegal drugs. And according to a 2006 study by the former president of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Jon Gettman, marijuana is already the top cash crop in a dozen states and among the top five crops in 39 states, with a total annual value of $36 billion.

I believe Kerlikowske has the knowledge and experience to help lead our country down this new path. As Seattle's chief of police he disagreed with I-75, a law that led to Seattle making marijuana possession law enforcements lowest priority. However, after the initiative passed he respected the people's wishes and Seattle is still standing.