Newly confirmed drug czar Gil Kerlikowske was interviewed on KUOW this week. Pete at Drug WarRant has a post up with excerpts from the interview. Here’s one Q&A that was reminiscent of drug czars past:
Q: Marijuana. Do you support legalization of marijuana?
Kerlikowske: No.
Q: And why is that?
Kerlikowske: It’s a dangerous drug.
Q: Now, why is it a dangerous drug?
Kerlikowske: It is a dangerous drug. There are numbers of calls to hotlines for people requesting help from marijuana. A number of people that have been arrested, and we test people and have data on this, that are arrested throughout the country, come in to the system with marijuana in their system, as arrests.
One of the reasons why people have been optimistic about Kerlikowske’s appointment is because he was the police chief in a city that tolerated the annual Hempfest gathering. At Hempfest, hundreds of thousands of people gather in a park near downtown Seattle, many of whom use marijuana while they’re there, and yet bad things almost never happen. People listen to music, they discuss drug law reform, they buy bongs, they hang out on the rocks along the Sound, and they happily mingle among the Seattle Police officers on duty for the event.
If marijuana were such a dangerous drug, how would that even be possible? I’ve been to 5 Hempfests so far, and I haven’t seen so much as an argument, let alone a fight or some other incident (ok, I’ve seen arguments in the Hemposium tent, but those are over politics).
I understand that Seattle is a bit more progressive on this when compared to the rest of the country (although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the state legislature), but that’s not an excuse for Kerlikowske to lie. As the police chief who sent his officers to 8 Hempfests, he knows full-well that marijuana is no more dangerous a drug than alcohol. In fact, I dare him to find any of his former officers who says they’d rather be assigned to keep the peace at an event the size of Hempfest where people were consuming alcohol instead.
Maybe he was told to tolerate it?
The whole approach of arguing with liars is wrong. You can’t argue with liars. You have to say they are liars.
You have to say it again and again as long as they are lying. You can’t tolerate one single lie, and arguing back tolerates despicable lying.
Seems to me this is an opportunity.
The Obama administration has placed a high value on science and openness. Kerlikowske’s statement, if not our of context, seems to call for substantiation .. data!
I think, there would be broad support for a movement to insist that he back these words up with real data . isn’t that really part of his job?
kerlikowske believes drug abuse is health problem and pot is just one aspect of the problem. his boss believes torture is illegal but preventive detention without charges is not. consistent. fucked.
“I understand that Seattle is a bit more progressive on this when compared to the rest of the country”
Understatement of the century, Lee. You’ve got to remember that Gil’s in a national post now, and he has to moderate his opinions to a national level, which means that he has to deal with people and officials who to this day still think Nancy Reagan was speaking Gospel truth back in the 80’s.
“I understand that Seattle is a bit more progressive on this when compared to the rest of the country”
Please, in every city in the country with over 300,000 people, the citizens and cops will tell you they have more bullshit to worry about than weed.
I am not sure who Gil is trying to appease. If it was so dangerous, than why are these the SPD standards for hiring?
Have not used Marijuana within the three (3) years prior to the date of this Acknowledgment of Minimum Standards Regarding Illegal Drug Use, and
Have not used Marijuana more than twenty-five (25) times within the ten (10) years prior to the date of this Acknowledgment of Minimum Standards Regarding Illegal Drug Use, and
The drug czar said:
“There are numbers of calls to hotlines for people requesting help from marijuana.”
If there were calls requesting help, it most likely was from people wanting to know where they could buy some pot!
This is a substance that we have to finally realize isn’t the Black Death nor a cure-all for everything wrong. Legalize this intoxicant and regulate it. Stop making criminals out of people who choose to enjoy this substance.
How many people arrested test positive for having coca cola in their system?
Drugs are for dopes, pure and simple.
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These politicians are ALL lying sacks of shit…Republican and Democrats. They’ll look you in the eyes and TELL you the moon is made out of green cheese, and that all right thinking Americans know this. Sure you can try to argue with them using logic and science. You can point to 5,000 studies that show the moon is NOT made out of green cheese, but they will just look you in the face and say it is and we all know it. F**K you Gil, Bush, Obama and the rest of you chickenshit politicians. It’s 2009, and we’re still making something like pot illegal because of “magical” beliefs. I can buy 5 cartons of cigarettes and a case of Vodka this afternoon, but a single joint will get me arrested? WTF! That is not logic or science. That is made up political bullshit. That is all these political pussies (that’s Dems and Repubs) trying to look “tough on crime”(tm). Scumbags. Man…I need a joint to calm down.
Where is YOUR favorite drug in the danger list? The Lancet (not a political journal, but a Medical journal) did a big study using that fancy scientific method. Ranked drugs by danger/damage, and it’s not quite what you’d think. IF we were a science/fact/reason based species, and we’d just draw a line on that chart SOMEWHERE and make drugs beyond a certain ‘danger point’ illegal, and the rest would be legal. Is that going to happen? Reality? Reason? Nope….lets just throw darts fucking randomly at a list and see what we hit and we’ll make THOSE drugs illegal.
http://www.mapinc.org/lib/LancetFigure1.gif
re:
“Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse”
The Lancet, Volume 369, Issue 9566, Pages 1047-1053
D. Nutt, L. King, W. Saulsbury, C. Blakemore
Perhaps either Mr. Kerlikowske was taken behind the woodshed by the people he worked for when he came here, or else he’s been taken behind the woodshed by the people he now works for once he got to DC.
Perhaps both.
Haha. (Lee’s head explodes). Guess your buddy was truthful after all asshole…..now go try to be a good Dad and put the peace pipe and bong away. Sooner or later Lee will have to grow up. Love it!
Obviously Kerlikowske can’t advocate the legalization of pot even if he believes it’s relatively harmless…the Obama administration would be demonized by the right as being soft on drugs.
I’m becoming more and more disenchanted with some of Obama’s moves..not the least of which is this “indefinite detention” crap…I mean, did we donate, work for and elect a Democrat who is turning out to be nothing more than a Republican lite?
Yes we did, we got ourselves a real oreo.
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ByeByeGOP,
Don’t spoof other people’s screen names. That is verboten.
@15
What?
LOL!
Exactly! Simple question to ask “Would you rather work White River Amphitheater Lynard Skynard-AC/DC-Monster Rock Weekend (sponsored by the King of Beers of course) OR Hempfest?
As SJ implies, the science behind the demonization of marijuana is weak, to say the least, and the science behind the fact that it is a relatively benign substance is very strong. If we limited the scope of the argument to facts, as proven by scientific surveys and studies, maybe we could have a rational debate about this. As it is, much of the ‘debate’ surrounding legalization of weed is clouded by the propaganda war that has been waged on it for much of the last 80 years or so.
The chief makes an excellent point that there have been calls to hotlines for help due to pot. There was this one well known example
Think pot’s not dangerous? Better think twice!
Hiring Kerlikowske!
Just another of the many reasons Obama is a dope and a liar!