Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Talk of drug courts, but not major policy changes, in drug war from Obama team

By Douglas A. Berman

This big story from CNN on the latest drug war talk coming from the Obama team reveals that drug courts, but not any moves toward legalization, appears to be focus on the new Administration: The man Obama picked to be the new "drug czar," Gil Kerlikowske, has made it clear that the United States is going to do a better job of treating addicts to try to reduce the demand for narcotics. Kerlikowske, 59, is a military veteran with 36 years of law enforcement experience. The drug czar oversees an agency that sets the country's drug-control strategy. The White House and Congress want to see more drug courts, and increased funding for the program 250 percent in the spending bill signed in March.... Vice President Joe Biden stressed the importance of drug courts and prisoner re-entry programs when he announced Kerlikowske's position in March, saying they "can serve as the light at the end of the tunnel, of a very long, long dark tunnel, for those who are stuck in the cycle of drug addiction and incarceration...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 19, 2009 (boomark / email).