Federal drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske (officially director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy) tells the Washington Post he would like to see more collaboration between law enforcement and drug treatment programs. Kerlikowske also says, "we should shout a lot more about the fact that [drug courts] actually do work."
Asked about his stepson's drug problems, Kerlikowske cites his own "opportunity to talk about addiction as a disease [] I think we are much more open in this country now to talk about it. There isn't anyone that is not affected by drugs -- friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors. It's huge."
Posted by malcolm kyle
Thursday, March 18, 2010 10:56
Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation. By its very nature prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model – the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous, ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved.
Many of us have now finally wised up to the fact that the best avenue towards realistically dealing with drug use and addiction is through proper regulation, which is what we already do with alcohol & tobacco —two of our most dangerous mood altering substances. But for those of you whose ignorant minds traverse a fantasy plane of existence, you will no doubt remain sorely upset with any type of solution that does not seem to lead to the absurd and unattainable utopia of a drug free society. There is an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. If you are not capable of understanding this connection, then maybe you’re using something far stronger than the rest of us. Anybody ‘halfway bright’ and who’s not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding, that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem; it is our refusal to allow legal businesses meet that demand. No amount of money, police powers, weaponry, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safer; only an end to prohibition can do that. How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?
If you still support prohibition then prepare yourself for even more death, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, unemployment, foreclosed homes, and the complete loss of the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.
Posted by Terry Nelson
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:03
Just how huge is huge. Will Kerlikiowske please give us actual or approximate numbers of the addicts in this country. Not the number of people that smoke marijuana but the estimated number of people that are actually clinically addicted by category. I am willing to wager that it is not a huge amount of people by percentage of the total population.. /tln/