Czar Struck: Obama's Brilliant Pick for Drug Czar

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 7:20 PM
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/02/11/czar_struck_obama_s_brillia

Obama choosing Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to become the next
drug czar in Washington, D.C., at first, looks like the same old
beltway logic: cops and prison terms are the snake-oil cure for drug
addictions. Some change, Obama. Right?

Under Clinton's and Bush's drug czars, the United States experienced
the steepest spike drug arrests in its history (contributing to the
fattest swell of anti-drug spending). Drug arrests jumped over 80
percent since 1992. And despite the effort, the White House reports
that drug use has risen.

But Kerlikowske, since he became chief in 2000, has been at the police
department's helm while Seattle made some of the most aggressive
reforms to drug enforcement in the country—allowed under federal law.
He never stood in the way. And now Kerlikowske is poised to become the
most influential person in federal government to set new drug laws.

The needle-exchange test: The Obama administration has already
identified this as its most pressing drug issue. Last week, Obama sent
American negotiators to the UN orders to reverse Bush's block on
needle exchange. He wants to allow clean needles—in Europe and in the
US. What's Kerlikowske's record?

"There has been long-standing support in the community as a whole and
from SPD for our continued operation of the needle exchange," says
James Apa, a spokesman for Seattle King County Public Health, which
runs one of first and the nation's largest needle-exchange programs.
Seattle IV drug users have some of the lowest HIV-infection rates in
the country, he says. But acceptance of the controversial program
hasn't been that long standing.

"What we would find is that police would hang around the exchange site
and watch who came and went," says Kris Nyrop, former director of
Street Outreach Services, a pioneering needle exchange group that
operated a table in downtown Seattle in the late 1980s. "Their
presence itself would be somewhat intimidating ... people would see
four police officers halfway down the block and they would turn around
and go home," he says. "Harassment like that happened routinely up
until the mid '90s."

But under Kerlikowske, "It has been a laissez-faire thing and the
police basically leave needle exchanges alone," says Nyrop.

Pot arrests have plummeted under Kerlikowske's watch. When he took
office in 2000, Seattle police arrested 332 people for misdemeanor
marijuana possession (.pdf); by 2006, the number had dropped to 148.
Some of that decline is likely due to Seattle passing Initiative 75,
which made marijuana enforcement the city's lowest law-enforcement
priority. But Kerlikowske didn't try to block I-75. While City
Attorney Tom Carr joined Bush's Drug Czar John Walters at a press
conference to oppose the measure—and Carr campaigned against the
measure for months—Kerlikoske was mum. And after voters passed the law
in 2003, SPD told a City Council Marijuana Policy Review Panel that
"officers [had] been verbally advised during their roll calls that
investigation and arrest of adults for possession of cannabis intended
for personal use is to be their lowest priority." At Hempfest—where
tens of thousands of people smoke pot in unison—SPD sergeant Lou Eagle
told a reporter, "We are not out there to enforce the marijuana laws."
And medical-marijuana patients, who could still be arrested despite
the state's medical-pot law, found Kerlikowske fair. Had Kerlikowske
chosen, SPD could have maintained or increased pot arrests. But he
didn't.

In striking contrast, Walters's number-one priority was marijuana.
"[N]o drug matches the threat posed by marijuana," his office wrote in
a letter telling federal attorneys to ratchet up prosecutions (.pdf).
And under Walters, the Drug Enforcement Administration and federal
prosecutors made a point of busting medical pot collectives in
California. But for Kerlikowski, pot was his lowest priority.

Hold on—Obama's not about to legalize pot.

The bigger issue—and safer issue, politically—is replacing enforcement
with public services. On that issue Kerlkowske has incubated a
revolution. Seattle implemented two programs that get drug users off
the street before they get arrested. Most notably, the Get Off The
Streets (GOTS) program hatched in the Central District when Sergeant
John Hayes (now a captain) set up a table as an arrest-free area that
people with criminal warrants could visit for health and human
services.

"That was, at that time, a very edgy approach, and the chief was
willing to let one of his people staff the program," says City Council
Member Nick Licata, who soon seized on the idea, passing legislation
to fund the project permanently. "It was a stage where Gil could have
stopped it from [getting funding], but he allowed it go forward," he
says.

"He's not saying we should do away with the drug war, but I think he
recognizes that it has not been a success and I think he is open to
other strategies," Licata continues. "That may be due to some of his
experiences here. Seattle may get some credit for exposing him to
real-time experiments, such as I-75, as to what could happen
nationally."

And nationally, Kerlikowske could be a drug czar who pushes to lift
the federal ban on funding needle exchange, stops the medical pot
raids in California, overhauls our nonsensical anti-drug commercials,
and enthusiastically seeks funding for drug-treatment programs.

The brilliance of Obama's pick for drug czar is not just finding
someone who is open to new strategies, but someone who nonetheless
holds undeniable qualifications as a cop. Nobody can claim Kerlikowske
is a public-health nut who doesn't know the impact of drugs on the
streets. Like many Americans, he agrees that drugs should be illegal.
But he understands the place for low priorities and public health—and
he's willing to step back where enforcement alone has failed.
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