The NYT has an interesting article suggesting President Obama’s choice for “drug czar” (aka the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy) could alter federal drug policy in positive ways.
The anticipated selection of Chief Kerlikowske has given hope to those who want national drug policy to shift from an emphasis on arrest and prosecution to methods more like those employed in Seattle: intervention, treatment and a reduction of problems drug use can cause, a tactic known as harm reduction. Chief Kerlikowske is not necessarily regarded as having forcefully led those efforts, but he has not gotten in the way of them.