The War On Drugs

From TierneyLab:

Which way is the Obama administration heading in dealing with illict drugs? It depends which speaker you heeded at Wednesday’s ceremony announcing that Gil Kerlikowske, the Seattle police chief, will become the White House’s new drug czar.

As my colleague David Stout reported, Mr. Kerlikowske said at the ceremony that “the success of our efforts to reduce the flow of drugs is largely dependent on our ability to reduce demand for them.” That approach jibes with study after study (like this one by Peter David Boyum and Peter Reuter for the American Enterprise Institute) concluding that interdiction has failed and recommending shifting emphasis to a public-health strategy of treatment and demand-reduction. It sounds like a break from the hard-line enforcement strategies pursued by Mr. Kerlikowske’s predecessor, John P. Walters (who failed to meet his goal of reducing drug use, as I noted).

But Mr. Kerlikowske was introduced at the ceremony by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who spoke enthusiastically about using law enforcement to stop drugs. “Quite frankly,” Mr. Biden said, “more cops on the street is one of the best ways to keep drugs off the street.” Mr. Biden also hailed his own role in increasing federal grants to local police departments, a policy that he and Mr. Obama had promised to expand as part of the war against drugs. Read more...