Obama's Drug Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'

via AlterNet:



Obama's Drug Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'

By Tony Newman, Drug Policy Alliance. Posted May 15, 2009.

Drug Czar reaffirms support for clean syringes to reduce HIV and ending raids on marijuana dispensaries.



White House drug czar, Gill Kerlikowske called for an "end to the war on drugs" and said the drug problem in this country should be a public heath issue and not a criminal justice issue. His comments came during an interview with Gary Fields of the Wall Street Journal and appear in Thursday's edition.

"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 and we are not at war with people in this country," Kerlikowske told the Journal. He also told the Journal that the Obama Administration is likely to deal with drugs as a public health issue and would favor treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

"We are cautiously optimistic" said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Kerlikowske appears to be in line with President Obama's call for a paradigm shift to public health and he along with the Justice Department support the range of drug policy reforms Obama pledged as a candidate."

As a presidential candidate, then-Senator Obama said the 'war on drugs is an utter failure' and that he believes in 'shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach.' He also called for eliminating the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, repealing the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs to reduce HIV/AIDS, and stopping the U.S. Justice Department from undermining state medical marijuana laws. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/140040/obama%27s_drug_czar_calls_for_end_to_%27war_on_drugs%27/

I lived in poor Chicago neighborhoods during the worst of the crack epidemic. I want that S#!+ off the streets be any means necessary. I hope people do get really long prison sentences selling it.

Ruining someone's life over marijuana is unacceptable.

That's an intermediate goal, if you ask me, of the war on drugs. To provide an excuse for doing things (any means necessary) that people would otherwise resist. For example, in Colombia and in Mexico, our deep state actors need an excuse for all the overbearing military apparatus that they would like to have there.

The ultimate goal is subjugation and exploitation. The war on drugs allows the "any means necessary" that facilitates the subjugation.