Legal Commentary

Obama to Name Seattle Top Cop as Drug Czar

By Jeralyn

President Barack Obama will name Seattle Police Gil Kerlikowske as the nation's new Drug Czar. He will be director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and it's a cabinet position.

A career cop, here's an interesting tidbit.

He has said he discovered his love for law enforcement in 1965 while fingerprinting criminals at a Florida jail.

Reactions from Drug law reformers:Not an ally by any means but we could have done worse: [More...]

To be clear, Kerlikowske is not a friend of drug policy reform to any extent I’m aware of. What matters here is that I see no evidence that he is a vicious drug warrior of the sort commonly associated with the drug czar post. Given that ONDCP is mandated to oppose reform efforts and has typically embraced that role, a less confrontational and reefer madness-driven drug czar is really the best case scenario from a drug policy reform perspective.

On the positive side:

Under Kerlikowske, Seattle has been a model for sensible marijuana policy, including the famous Seattle Hempfest at which the Seattle Police Department performs a public safety role while declining to make marijuana arrests. Following the passage of a 2004 lowest priority initiative, the city’s already-low rate of marijuana prosecutions fell even further, suggesting that Kerlikowske was responsive to the will of voters.

In that sense, he offers a dramatic departure from ONDCP’s shameful history of undermining state medical marijuana laws and inserting itself into state politics for the purpose of thwarting reform efforts. In an office typically run by military officials and political hacks, Kerlikowske would bring expertise in community policing and public relations.

The piece ends with:

....As drug czar, I have no doubt that Gil Kerlikowske would oppose drug legalization and serve as our primary opponent on many issues. Nevertheless, at first glance, my gut instinct is that after several drug czars from hell, a guy from Seattle doesn’t sound so bad.

So we could have done worse. Is that the new standard for someone we elected because he promised progressive change? "We could have done worse" is a phrase I associate with Republican appointments that weren't disasterous. Should we expect more from Obama?

Since I know nothing about Kerlikowske, I'll update this post as more reactions come in.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).