Obama's Drug Czar discusses Mexico's cartels and medical marijuana in wide-ranging interview

Gil Kerlikowske looks exhausted. The Seattle police chief-turned-drug czar is facing a litany of issues du jour (bath salts, pill mills) as well as more long-term challenges, like Mexico’s cartels and a tenacious and growing alliance of drug-law reformers in the U.S. Before the month is over, Kerlikowske will tour Appalachia to meet with state and city leaders about the prescription pill crisis and make his eighth trip to the Mexico border. The Daily Caller caught up with him this week to discuss drug policy. Our interview follows.

THE DAILY CALLER: I want to start with something you’ve said in past interviews, which is that you don’t like the term “drug war.” You don’t like this term because it’s hard to define who the enemy is, and sometimes the enemy is American citizens.

Do you think that what’s happening on the ground — the use of no-knock raids and SWAT teams, people’s pets being shot, their homes being trashed — do those things complicate your efforts at redefining this as something other than a war?

KERLIKOWSKE: Well, it might, but I guess the difference that I see is the level of violence in the United States and the training that law enforcement goes through. Whether they’re dealing with an armed robbery or taking down a drug house, and given the number of officers who are shot and killed anymore, and the type of weaponry that is out on the streets, I don’t think there’s any way to approach it from a safety standpoint that wouldn’t involve this.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/11/thedc-interview-drug-czar-gil-kerlikowske-on-mexico-pill-mills-and-the-medical-marijuana-stalemate/

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Friday

February 11th, 2011

Staff Reporter EducationNews.org

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