At a Wednesday press conference, Vice President Joe Biden announced that President Obama will nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the next head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), also known as the drug czar's office. But unlike his immediate predecessor, John Walters, Kerlikowske will not get a seat on the Cabinet.
Kerlikowske has been police chief in Seattle since 2000 and is currently head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, representing 56 of the largest police forces in the country. He also served as Police Commissioner for the City of Buffalo, where he served until 1998, when he left to become the Deputy Director of the COPS program for the Department of Justice.
"The success of our efforts to reduce the flow of drugs is largely dependent on our ability to reduce demand for them," Kerlikowske said at the ceremony top-heavy with police brass. "Our nation's drug problem is one of human suffering, and as a police officer but also in my own family, I have experienced the effects that drugs can have."
But Kerlikowske will not sit on the Cabinet; the drug czar position was demoted by the incoming Obama administration, perhaps in order to give Vice President Biden, a long-time congressional drug fighter, a greater role in determining national drug policy, the Washington Post suggested, citing "administration sources."
Although Biden and Obama have said repeatedly that they believe in drug courts and drug treatment over incarceration, Biden could not help slipping into vintage drug warrior mode, replete with every hackneyed cliche in the book. "Addiction is a disease," he said. "The correlation between drugs and violence is well-established," he added. Biden also seemed unable to say the words "drug use," instead only mentioning "drug abuse."
And while Biden said the country needed a "comprehensive answer" to drug use and spoke of treatment, prevention, and law enforcement, he did not mention harm reduction programs. "We know we needed tough laws, and we have tough laws. But that wasn't enough. We needed a balanced approach in combating drugs -- one that included prevention, treatment and enforcement."
One would almost think it was Biden, not Kerlikowske, who had just been nominated as drug czar. Given the demotion from the Cabinet of the new drug czar, will it be Biden more than Kerlikowske calling the policy shots?
disease
What is wrong with saying that addiction is a disease? It may be cliched but more so for the anti-incarceration crowd. You don't put sick people in jail, you get them help.
I think it is a big improvement that he is saying addiction is a disease that requires treatment rather than saying it is a moral dilemma that requires incarceration.
Bet They Don't Consider Their Addictions Diseases!
Joe would know!
Biden is about as diseased as it gets... diseased by his addiction to god (catholic) and government (socialist).
Are the tens of millions that abuse beer and hard liquor every weekend while watching football, baseball, and auto racing diseased?
What about the hundreds of millions that abuse caffeine, tobacco, food, laziness, gambling incl. lottery, pornography, or any other vice you can think of... are they diseased too!
Addictions are subjective and everyone is addicted to something.
Really?
The problem being, addiction is not really what fits into your line of thought here. By definition, addiction is a compulsive behavior that results in social or physical deterioration of one's life. Sex addiction, food addiction. drug addiction. But, abuse is not addiction. In pain patients, medicine use is not addiction. Granted, to stop using the medication would cause physical withdrawal symptoms. But most chronic pain patients cannot stop it anyway, unless they want to be tortured with 24/7 chronic intractable pain. The way we use words in our discussions can make a big difference.
Abuse of alcohol is only considered with drunkenness or alcoholism. Not from non-problematic social use. And, any use, of even something as benign as cannabis, is abuse! That, even with the fact that no one has ever died from a cannabis overdose. Ever heard of someone using it and passing out in the bathroom, like, after becoming severely intoxicated from alcohol use? Addictions are only subjective when they are valid. I.E. Addiction to caffeine, is a moot point. As is religion, laziness (that's a new one on me!?), or "any other vice you can think of". And, we have not figured out yet that because something is a vice, it does not justify punishing someone over it! If alcohol was not prohibited in the Bible, why do, mortal, people think they can do any better?
Being said, I cannot agree that everyone is "addicted" to something. Addiction is far more complex than that.
But, there are plenty of MDs called addictionologists that make a good living off, just that, premise! Thing is, without it, they would not be able to make money! Their claiming 1/3 of us are addicted, is a sort of self serving enterprise!
The problem with the "disease" model is that is plays both sides
The 12 step "addiction is a disease" model is a very starnge concept of what a disease is, because according to the first step of the 12 steps you are supposed to realize that you are "morally corrupt." The 12 step model comes from a very conservative Christian group called the Oxford group.
According to 12 step addiction is a disease of the soul. So while they claim it's a disease, they claim that you are morally corrupt for having the disease.
99% of all drug treament in the US today is based on the 12 step model. 12 step is also very opposed to any form of harm reduction, as it proposes abstinence uber-allias!
One correction...
The booklet for the first step of the 12 steps involves getting you to admit that you are "morally bankrupt1"
violence
"The correlation between drugs and violence is well-established." Can anyone take him seriously after saying this?
Hopefully what he meant was: "The correlation between drug prohibition and the existance of violent drug cartels is well-established."
Perhaps our Vice President was sick and stayed home from school when they taught about alcohol prohibition and its consequences.
we are screwed
Biden is an idiot and Obama is a liar
It was Biden's idea to create the office of drug czar in 1988
(BIDEN)Took lead on drug policy & narcotics control Biden has sought to take the lead on drug policy, spearheading creation of a “Drug Czar” and crafting laws to control narcotics--measures that are widely viewed as pretty much of a failure. Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.180 Nov 11, 2007
It was also Biden who attached the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act,to the Amber alert bill in 2003 effectively making Glow Sticks a Felony crime at RAVES
Biden Remains A Looming Idiot... and Sanctified Asshole!
Joe believes there is no human failure, no matter how big or small.... real or imagined, that a gov't mandated law can't fix!
That coupled with the moral clarity and certitude that only the religiously faithful can possess makes him supremely anatagonistic to individual rights and the founding principles of this great republic!
A Republic sullied, not served, by the likes of Joe Biden!
addiction/disease
It is true that addicted persons show changes in the brain by a variety of scans, but it isn't a disease like pneumonia. It seems more accurate, regardless of current medical classification, to think of addiction as a 'medical problem'.
As far as 'abuse' as a term, it seems to me a more appropriate description is that used by some others:
casual use-----regular use-----problem use.
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