White House Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'

MAY 14, 2009
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html

Kerlikowske Says Analogy Is Counterproductive; Shift Aligns With Administration Preference for Treatment Over Incarceration

By GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting "a war on drugs," a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues.

"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," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."

Mr. Kerlikowske's comments are a signal that the Obama administration is set to follow a more moderate -- and likely more controversial -- stance on the nation's drug problems. Prior administrations talked about pushing treatment and reducing demand while continuing to focus primarily on a tough criminal-justice approach.

The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said.

Already, the administration has called for an end to the disparity in how crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine are dealt with. Critics of the law say it unfairly targeted African-American communities, where crack is more prevalent.

The administration also said federal authorities would no longer raid medical-marijuana dispensaries in the 13 states where voters have made medical marijuana legal. Agents had previously done so under federal law, which doesn't provide for any exceptions to its marijuana prohibition.

During the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama also talked about ending the federal ban on funding for needle-exchange programs, which are used to stem the spread of HIV among intravenous-drug users.

The drug czar doesn't have the power to enforce any of these changes himself, but Mr. Kerlikowske plans to work with Congress and other agencies to alter current policies. He said he hasn't yet focused on U.S. policy toward fighting drug-related crime in other countries.

Mr. Kerlikowske was most recently the police chief in Seattle, a city known for experimenting with drug programs. In 2003, voters there passed an initiative making the enforcement of simple marijuana violations a low priority. The city has long had a needle-exchange program and hosts Hempfest, which draws tens of thousands of hemp and marijuana advocates.

Seattle currently is considering setting up a project that would divert drug defendants to treatment programs.

Mr. Kerlikowske said he opposed the city's 2003 initiative on police priorities. His officers, however, say drug enforcement -- especially for pot crimes -- took a back seat, according to Sgt. Richard O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. One result was an open-air drug market in the downtown business district, Mr. O'Neill said.

"The average rank-and-file officer is saying, 'He can't control two blocks of Seattle, how is he going to control the nation?' " Mr. O'Neill said.

Sen. Tom Coburn, the lone senator to vote against Mr. Kerlikowske, was concerned about the permissive attitude toward marijuana enforcement, a spokesman for the conservative Oklahoma Republican said.

Others said they are pleased by the way Seattle police balanced the available options. "I think he believes there is a place for using the criminal sanctions to address the drug-abuse problem, but he's more open to giving a hard look to solutions that look at the demand side of the equation," said Alison Holcomb, drug-policy director with the Washington state American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr. Kerlikowske said the issue was one of limited police resources, adding that he doesn't support efforts to legalize drugs. He also said he supports needle-exchange programs, calling them "part of a complete public-health model for dealing with addiction."

Mr. Kerlikowske's career began in St. Petersburg, Fla. He recalled one incident as a Florida undercover officer during the 1970s that spurred his thinking that arrests alone wouldn't fix matters.

"While we were sitting there, the guy we're buying from is smoking pot and his toddler comes over and he blows smoke in the toddler's face," Mr. Kerlikowske said. "You go home at night, and you think of your own kids and your own family and you realize" the depth of the problem.
Since then, he has run four police departments, as well as the Justice Department's Office of Community Policing during the Clinton administration.

Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports legalization of medical marijuana, said he is "cautiously optimistic" about Mr. Kerlikowske. "The analogy we have is this is like turning around an ocean liner," he said. "What's important is the damn thing is beginning to turn."

James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest law-enforcement labor organization, said that while he holds Mr. Kerlikowske in high regard, police officers are wary.

"While I don't necessarily disagree with Gil's focus on treatment and demand reduction, I don't want to see it at the expense of law enforcement. People need to understand that when they violate the law there are consequences."

Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3

"New Drug-Treatment Care" - New York Times Letter to the Editor from Howard Josepher

New York Times
Letters to the Editor

May 15, 2009

"New Drug-Treatment Care"

To the Editor:

“Shrinking the Prison Population” (editorial, May 11) rightly points out that parole and probation systems are sending too many drug-addicted and mentally ill offenders back to jail but doesn’t mention that the primary mechanism triggering these sanctions is failed drug tests.

Some recidivism would be addressed by expanding community-based drug treatment and mental health services, but unless we change our understanding of addiction, and its treatment, we will continue to unjustly punish people for their disease or their mental condition.

Many of us who work in this field have come to understand addiction as a relapsing, recurring disease or condition requiring us to address lapses in a way that does not trigger a punitive response. This emerging chronic care approach to drug treatment distinguishes itself from more punitive approaches where anything less than total sobriety is considered a failure.

Howard Josepher
New York, May 11, 2009

The writer is president and chief executive of Exponents, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of people affected by drug addiction.

Click here to read article at the New York Times

Drinkers zone out — but may not know it

Even a little alcohol can make minds more prone to wander

Reuters
updated 4:23 p.m. ET, Tues., May 12, 2009

NEW YORK - Even a modest amount of alcohol can make the mind prone to wandering, but drinkers may be slow to notice it, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when they had a group of men read "War and Peace" after either an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink, those who'd imbibed were markedly more prone to zoning out while reading. They were also less likely than their sober counterparts to realize their minds had wandered far from Tolstoy.

While most people may not reach for "War and Peace" after a cocktail, the findings could have implications for behaviors more likely to go hand-in-hand with social drinking, according to the researchers.

Other tasks that require "sustained attention," such as driving a car, could be affected, explained lead researcher Dr. Michael A. Sayette, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

In addition, he told Reuters Health, the alcohol zone-out might hinder a person's ability to resist "impulses and temptations" — a task that often requires a great deal of mental effort. For instance, Sayette noted, studies suggest that when smokers are trying to quit, drinking alcohol makes them more vulnerable to relapse.

For their study, published in the journal Psychological Science, Sayette and his colleagues recruited 55 men who were social drinkers and had them slowly drink either a cocktail or a non-alcoholic beverage. The men then took on the task of reading "War and Peace" from a computer screen for 30 minutes.

The men were told to press a particular key any time they found themselves zoning out as they read. They were also prompted every few minutes with the message, "Were you zoning out?" This allowed the researchers to gauge how often the men's minds had wandered without their realizing it.

Overall, the study found, men in the alcohol group let their minds wander more than twice as often as their completely sober counterparts — spending about 25 percent of their reading time zoned out.

Yet despite having many more chances to catch themselves wandering, men in the alcohol group were actually less likely to do so.

Alcohol also seemed to affect the content of the men's mental distractions, the study found. Those in the alcohol group were more likely than their counterparts to say their zone-outs included thoughts of eating, drinking or smoking -- which, the researchers note, is consistent with studies showing that alcohol may boost cigarette cravings.

Copyright 2009 Reuters.