Consequences of Prohibition
Politics & Advocacy
President Obama has named Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), colloquially known as the drug czar's office, a White House official confirmed Thursday. It is not clear when the official announcement will be made.
Gil Kerlikowske
How Kerlikowske will behave as drug czar is unclear. His has not been a loud voice on drug policy, but he has been police chief in a city, Seattle, that has embraced lowest-priority policing for adult marijuana offenses and needle exchange programs, and he has gone with the flow in regards to those issues. For a keen local look at Kerlikowske, Seattle activist turned journalist Dominic Holden's musings on Kerlikowske are well worth checking out.
Prior to being named Seattle police chief in 2000, Kerlikowske served as deputy director in the Justice Department, where he oversaw the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant program. He also spent four years as Buffalo's police commissioner. The military veteran has a total of 36 years in law enforcement, where he has earned a reputation as a progressive.
While Kerlikowske has a national profile in law enforcement circles, it is not because of drug policy. His interests have been around gun policy, immigration, and electronic data mining of private records, which he has criticized as highly intrusive and not very useful.
Drug reformers had advocated for someone with a public health -- not a law enforcement -- background to head ONDCP. But a progressive law enforcement official who has a record of tolerating drug reform and harm reduction efforts may make for a decent drug czar from the reform perspective.
"While we're disappointed that President Obama seems poised to nominate a police chief instead of a major public health advocate as drug czar, we're cautiously optimistic that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will support Obama's drug policy reform agenda," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "What gives us hope is the fact that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments in the United States over the last decade," he said.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
All i know is
If your a Police Cheif and not out waving the Drug War Flag, you likely see the harm caused by waging a war on the people your also paid to serve and protect. We all have been disappointed in the past, but given previous Obama statements, the White House press statement last week regarding Medical Marijuana raids in Cali, and our current economic nightmare, Marijuana might actually have a snowballs chance in hell of regaining its proper place as a legal taxed commodity. Hopefully gown by the dedicated small business owners in every state. because local means quality!
Keep pushing, were almost there!
L.E.A.P.
Gil Kerllkowske should be pressured into joining L.E.A.P. the real Heros of cops. Lets all at least let him know we think it would be a good Idea. Can we get L.E.A.P. to send him an application? Maybe we can all get applications and send them to Gil.
Looks like McAffery all over again...
Disappointing. We heard the same thing when Barry McCaffery was brought in under Clinton - oh, he's a General so maybe he'll do the right thing", and look what happened....Barry made a fool of himself and tarnished his reputation (more than it already was by ordering his troops to slaughter a retreating Iraqi military convoy) by being the consummate liar and drug-war cheerleader. And that was under Bill Clinton.
So now we have a police chief. Another order-taker. Basically, Kerllkowske is going to do whatever Obama tells him, right or wrong, that's why the order-taker was hired. Obama isn't going to hire in a health professional who will go around spouting off on how we need to reform the drug laws, that would be the equivalent of a loose cannon and could do the office of the President some serious political harm.
The (hopefully) good news is that it's entirely possible that Obama will order K (not going to spell his name again) to start toning the rhetoric down, and maybe get us to the point where we can get an actual reformer in ONDCP for Obama's second term.
I do believe Obama will reform the drug war, but I don't think it's going to happen until his second term, when there's little political risk.
Calling Norm Stamper... Calling Norm Stamper
Dr. Norm Stamper finished his 34-year police career as chief of police of Seattle, Washington. Stamper believes the drug war causes untold misery, undermines effective law enforcement, and does not begin to pass any sort of cost-benefit analysis.
I hope Norm and others at LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) have already contacted and perhaps influenced the new Czars attitudes towards the monstrous failure known as the drug war.
Kerlikowske should read Norms' book 'Breaking Rank' before issuing his first order to the troops.
In reply to Calling Norm Stamper... Calling Norm Stamper by Anonymous (not verified)
Really?
I don't know if I would be calling the guy who took over my job, expecting to have any influence. One might want to bone up on the relationship these two have before trying to get an alliance.
An easy start for Obama
The first thing President Obama should do is rein in the raids on grows in California and other states that have passed
medical marijuana initiatives. He could truthfully say that it is a state's rights issue and the DEA should butt out. States rights is something that appeals to folks from both sides of the aisle.
In reply to An easy start for Obama by Anonymous (not verified)
a done deal...
He's already said that, but apparently the current DEA chief is a loose cannon and wants to bust as many caregivers as she can before she gets ejected from office. I guess she thinks that's going to help her resume', I hope the opposite is true.
If I were Obama, I'd walk over to the DEA with media in tow and fire Ms. DEA Chief personally and make an example of her for being insubordinate.
Gil is a decent man.
I live not far from Buffalo,NY . Over the course of the last 40 years I've come to know a lot of officer in the Buffalo Police. I once saw Gil physically stop a detective from the narc squad who was whacking a supect with a phone book. He seems to be a straight guy who listens and acts according to the threat level. He's a good manager and respected by his fellow officers. Buffalo was sad to see him go for he most part.
I think the "Drug Tsar" should be eliminated. If you have to employ one I guess he's better than most canidates.
Uncle Buster...
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