Seattle’s Top Cop Becomes New Drug Czar
May 8th, 2009 by Rick
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske’s nomination to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Kerlikowske is a 36-year law enforcement veteran, with the past nine being Seattle’s top cop. Kerlikowske is known for his programs in Seattle that reduced the demand for drugs by prevention and treatment instead of following the harsh federal guidelines.
Kerlikowske is highly open to coordinating with other countries, as well as local and state governments to form partnerships to reduce drug trafficking and drug use. Before you blow the trumpets and welcome in the winds of change, realize that because of Vice President Biden’s knowledge of federal drug policy, there is no need for the Director of ONDCP to have Cabinet level access to President Obama.
VP Biden may know about federal drug policy, but it’s him and his buddies that had created the drug czar position, the war on drugs and put us in the quagmire that we are currently muddling through. It’s ironic that they would do something like that, denying Kerlikowske to fufill that part of the job, when he is the right man for the job. Kerlikowske says he will use Biden as a resource to his office but unfortunately if he actually listens to him, then maybe things won’t change for the better.
Kerlikowske is entering the office in turbulent times when it comes to the war on drugs. As he well knows, the Portugal and Switzerland experiments of legalizing drugs were deemed successful. Mexico even legalized a small amount of drug possession, in order to hopefully curb the Mexican cartel violence. Kerlikowske says the demand for the drugs has to be reduced… something which he should know would never happen. Unless drugs were to be made legal, which would take away the currency to the cartels and slowly choke the life out of them.
