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White House Criticizes U.S. Drug Policy

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Odd_nonposter

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Feb 21, 2011
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White House Criticizes U.S. Drug Policy
Council Says Policy Should Focus On Treatment, Not Prison
Kvia.com
By the CNN Wire Staff

The U.S. government's drug strategy should focus more on treating addiction and less on imposing harsh prison sentences, the White House said Tuesday.
"Outdated policies like the mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders are relics of the past that ignore the need for a balanced public health and safety approach to our drug problem," Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement.
The office's annual report to Congress suggests a "new national approach" that includes criminal justice system reforms aimed at stopping "the revolving door of drug use, crime, incarceration, and rearrest," officials said in a statement.
"The policy alternatives contained in our new strategy support mainstream reforms based on the proven facts that drug addiction is a disease of the brain that can be prevented and treated and that we cannot simply arrest our way out of the drug problem," said Kerlikowske, who is known as the nation's "drug czar."
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Continued at: http://www.kvia.com/news/30909843/detail.html
 
Welcome to the 21st century America :)

Overall drug use in the United States has "dropped substantially" over the past 30 years, the policy office said Tuesday. Cocaine consumption in the United States had decreased 40% from 2006 to 2010, and methamphetamine use had dropped 50% in that same period, the office said.
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I'm not sure I buy those stats, unless it's because they've all swapped to popping pills.
 
I can believe cocaine and meth popularity has drooped. Those 2 drugs especially coke is really expernsive so with the economic downturn you would expect a drop in consumer demand. Plus the local intervntion efforts against meth have been somewhat suucessful its a real bitch to get sudafedrine so im sure alot of the small time cooks stopped. Overall I would call it a market change. But its no suprise they would highlight any drop as success because lets face it the last 5 yearshave been a disaster for the drug control lobby. Central America is up to its knees in blood from the cartel government violence, and medical pot is gaining traction despite the feds best efforts to control it. add this to the publics gradual awakening to the fact that the drug war is a farce and you see why they are all of a sudden trying to jump on the reform bandwagon. I however dont believe any real chang will occur they are just paying lip service to policy changes. The drug control budget was reseased a few weeks ago and it looked exactly the same as the Bush administrations did.
 
LuGoJ said:
Finally, another step in the right direction.
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This is rhetoric; no specific policy changes have been announced (that I can see). Reflect for a second on the fact that marijuana dispensaries are being gored and maimed by various Federal agencies, and that more and more legit pain patients are being cut off every day, and that seemingly every new popular substance is being gradually banned. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the final analysis, the White House is actually escalating the War on Drugs. They are talking out of both sides of their asshole.
 
Maybe I am just feeling a bit optimistic because I go laid this morning :)
 
This is rhetoric; no specific policy changes have been announced (that I can see). Reflect for a second on the fact that marijuana dispensaries are being gored and maimed by various Federal agencies, and that more and more legit pain patients are being cut off every day, and that seemingly every new popular substance is being gradually banned. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the final analysis, the White House is actually escalating the War on Drugs. They are talking out of both sides of their asshole.
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Sure it is just rhetoric and bullshit. However when was the last time anybody from the White House has even TALKED about toning down the war on drugs? This is the first time (to my knowledge anyway)that a drug czar has talked about leniency towards drug users. As far as I know every drug czar ever appointed has talked about harsher and harsher punishments. Regardless of whether this guy means it or not, a precedent has been set and opinions are shifting. It will be a long road no doubt but perhaps this is the first step.
 
^the drug czar says something to that effect every year. This is March 2009:

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

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.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html
 
Less people use meth and coke, more people use prescription pills now.

Guess which one the govt gets a cut from?
 
I ain't gettin' excited until I see some legislation happenin'.

First laissez-faire, then busts, then "we want to reduce arrests".

Number one, make up your fuckin' mind. Number two, you ain't winnin' any points with us.
 
The problem is they say things like this, but drug use is STILL treated as a criminal justice issue. Until all drugs are legalized and regulated, any attempts at treating addiction or treating it as a medical issue is going to be a failure. The system loves to push coerced abstinence on addicts. It's very transparent, as any addiction besides drugs is not treated in a criminal manner, but if you are an addict in the system and don't buy into the threats and the systems method of treatment, they come down just as hard if not harder on you as a criminal issue

legalization or at very least decriminalization is the only way we can even begin to treat this as a medical issue
 
Why is the White House making this statement, as if it needs anyone else's permission to make policy changes? Who are they trying to appeal to, Congress? Corporations?

Obama could use his pen and ink to overturn drug laws tomorrow. It's not going to happen though.
 
Obama could use his pen and ink to overturn drug laws tomorrow. It's not going to happen though.
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Seriously? You think he could just wake up and decide 'I wanna legalize drugs today' and do it and have it work out?
 
^Gary Johnson on what he'd do as president:

I hope to defang the DEA. It's my understanding I can deschedule marijuana as a class 1 narcotic by executive order and I will do that.
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