I found this article very interesting… Let me know what you think??
Gil Kerlikowske, the new director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy sat down with The Wall Street Journal for his first interview since his confirmation last week.
What are your priorities?
The priorities for me and the direction from the vice president is clear, to have ONDCP be back front and center on the coordination issues and the policy issues for the federal government. Being talked to for the job by the man that authored the legislation goes a long way.
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.
Why is it important to you to stop using the analogy?
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, a war on individuals and we’re not at war with people in this country so I think we need to be more comprehensive.
If we’re not successful in improving on the addiction rate we have in this country and how we get people treated for drugs and return them back to the streets, it paints a very dark picture in the future, especially with the economy where it is.
What’s the number one drug problem?
Well [illegal] prescription drug use is rising and one problem I want to shout about. At the federal level it’s easy to look at things nationally but drug issues are different depending on the geography. In some places meth may be far more serious, even though on a national scale it doesn’t appear that way. In Appalachia Oxycotin may be far more serious. I want to look at things regionally and in a narrower focus than in a national focus.