In his first interview given Wednesday to the Wall Street Journal, Gil Kerlikowske, our new drug czar, trumpeted the official beginning of the end of the War on Drugs.
Follow me over the bump.
From Thursday's Journal -
In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues.
"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."
The piece continues -
Mr. Kerlikowske's comments are a signal that the Obama administration is set to follow a more moderate -- and likely more controversial -- stance on the nation's drug problems. Prior administrations talked about pushing treatment and reducing demand while continuing to focus primarily on a tough criminal-justice approach.
The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said.
The ramifications of these comments are nothing less than tectonic shifting. Finally, an administration with the guts to re-frame this as a public health, not a criminal justice, issue.
The drug czar directs DEA policy. And he plans to head to the Capital -
The drug czar doesn't have the power to enforce any of these changes himself, but Mr. Kerlikowske plans to work with Congress and other agencies to alter current policies.
While battles are still to be waged with the tired drug warriors, the tide's shift is gaining significant momentum. Together with Senator Jim Webb's prison reform crusade, we can now safely say the War on Drugs' swan song has sung.