Pubdate: Wed, 02 May 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Don Freedman

OBAMA DRUG CZAR PUTS MORE EMPHASIS ON TREATMENT

The Obama administration's top drug policy official said Tuesday that 
although the government continues antidrug efforts on the Southwest 
border, "we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem."

National Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said that it's time to 
"treat drug addiction as a disease."

The administration's strategy seeks a middle ground between drug 
legalization and an enforcement of drug laws, Kerlikowske said in a 
speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank 
founded by John Podesta, former White House chief of staff to 
President Clinton.

The new strategy, which emphasizes drug-prevention programs and 
alternatives to prison for drug users, could become a flash point in 
President Obama's bid for re-election in November.

Kerlikowske's de-emphasis of law enforcement stood in contrast to a 
crackdown that U.S. attorneys in California ordered last year on 
medical marijuana businesses operating under state law.

"It would be nice if they actually meant what they are saying, or if 
their policies matched their words," said Tom Angell, San 
Francisco-based media relations director for Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition, which advocates drug legalization and regulation.

Congressional Republicans said this is no time to de-emphasize the 
enforcement of drug laws.
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