A more pragmatic 'Drug Czar'?

[marmar]

from the NY Times:



Seattle Police Chief May Be Next Drug Czar
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: February 12, 2009


WASHINGTON — President Obama has chosen R. Gil Kerlikowske, the chief of police in Seattle, as his drug czar, an administration official said Thursday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Chief Kerlikowske, 59, would come to the Office of National Drug Control Policy after more than eight years as the chief law enforcement official in a city known for its progressive drug laws. The appointment was first reported Tuesday on the Web sites of Seattle newspapers.

The nomination of Chief Kerlikowske, coupled with early policy pronouncements by Mr. Obama, has left those who want to change drug policy cautiously optimistic. The White House, for example, supports removing a ban on federal money for needle exchanges.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which wants drug laws eased, said Mr. Kerlikowske did not voice support for Seattle’s needle exchange or medical use of marijuana policies, but did not actively oppose them, either.

“We’d have preferred more of a public health type,” Mr. Nadelmann said. “But he’s likely to be the best drug czar we’ve seen. Not that that’s saying much.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13czar.html?_r=1&ref=us

[rockymountaindem]

1. It's spelled "Tsar" you clowns!

I mean, if you're going to name the post after a bunch of reactionary autocrats (something I never understood here in the land of the free), at least spell it right :)

[marmar]

2. per wikipedia:

Originally, the title Czar (derived from Caesar) meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Roman or Byzantine emperor (or, according to Byzantine ideology, the most elevated position adjacent to the one held by the Byzantine monarch) due to recognition by another emperor or a supreme ecclesiastical official (the Pope or the Ecumenical Patriarch).

Occasionally, the word could be used to designate other, non-Christian, supreme rulers. In Russia and Bulgaria the imperial connotations of the term were blurred with time and, by the 19th century, it had come to be viewed as an equivalent of King.

[rockymountaindem]

9. Yeah, I know

But as a Russian history fan I've read oodles of books on imperial Russia, and I don't think any academics use "Czar". So I don't consider it to be the real spelling, ivory tower elitist that I am :)

[ananda]

11. Actually, C Z A R is the better spelling..

.. because it is derived from the Latin
word Caesar.

[Solly Mack]

3. I wanted that job

[marmar]

4. What would have been your first policy initiative?

n/t

[Solly Mack]

5. Give me all the drugs

:P

[marmar]

6. Hey, you can't encroach on the Commons like that.....If you get some E, we all get some E.....

:smoke:

[Solly Mack]

10. Oh, I'd share!

and even dress up my agenda

The allocation of controlled substances to a central location for testing and security.

You can be secure in the knowledge that testing - a lot of it - is going on...

[cliffordu]

7. Me too

I got stoned an d missed my interview.

[Solly Mack]

12. because I got high...because I got high...because I got high

[spanone]

8. i say let's drop this drug czar shit and stop the ludicrous war on drugs while we're at it

spend the money where it counts, education and rehabilitation

this guy was a late teen in the sixties like me, we'll see what he learned

[Birthmark]

13. I've been against the Drug Czar

...ever since I found out I was wrong about what it meant!

Sheesh! Talk about embarrassing.