All Americans should have a great interest in the actions of our Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, as he impacts all our lives and $ billions of tax dollars. Always AT WAR WITH AMERICANS and in denial of healthcare (and our national debt) - disrespectful of the medical profession - killer of innocent Mexicans - his job has become more complex and urgent, in the last few years, as his failed war on drugs has continued taking turns for the worst... turning Mexican pot fields into killing-fields and suburban America into a pharmaceutically-poisoned waster-land - as his entire credibility in battling God-given marijuana is undermined by effective medical legalization efforts America-wide, and by his own Federal government... as far more significant crises have surfaced with pharmaceutical drugs that fail to provide healthcare, but do kill - which marijuana does not.

As America is bankrupt, and going down the toilet - along with all Gil Kerlikowske's pills and poison piss, poisoning our natural resources, wildlife and all humanity - the following thorough interview by The Daily Caller of our Drug Czar is required reading:

TheDC Interview: Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske on Mexico, pill mills, and the medical marijuana stalemate

 

Mike Riggs is a staff writer at The Daily Caller. He has written and reported for Reason magazine and reason.com, GQ, the Awl, Decibel, Culture 11, the Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Washington City Paper, where he served as an arts and entertainment editor.

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.

So while it would be wonderful to be like the London Metropolitan Police and walk around unarmed, frankly, the United States was founded in violence, and we’re a pretty violent country. You can’t change that.

I do think we can change the angst that is caused by calling it a war on drugs, especially since to the minority community it feels like a war on them. Community policing and those kinds of things can help change it.

TheDC: You don’t want to take resources away from enforcement, but you do want to see more money going towards rehabilitation. What do you see as some good rehabilitation strategies? Tehran has a clean-needle exchange program, but D.C. doesn’t. So what should we have and where should the money come from?

KERLIKOWSKE: It’s not always about the money. Sometimes you have to look at how do you leverage some of the resources, especially in the prevention programs, which are labor intensive. Look at Drug Free Communities. It’s a small grant; $125,000. But if you look at the amount of work that these 720 or 730 communities do for a very small amount of money — it’s a lot of volunteers and a lot of enlisting other resources.

When it comes to treatment — and you wouldn’t want to call this a peace dividend — but treatment is half the cost of incarceration. When the president asked me not long after I took this job, “Gil do you really think we can make some progress on the drug front?” I naively said, “I think we can.”

And in a way, the wind’s at our backs in this recession. You have places like Texas talking about treatment instead of incarceration for low-level drug offenses. You have John Kasich newly elected governor of Ohio talking about how to keep low level drug offenders out of the prison and the criminal justice system.

There may be some benefit to dealing with the problem that way than with the high cost of incarceration.

NEXT: A new approach to Mexico's drug problem

TheDC: What obstacles are you running into now that you didn’t anticipate when you agreed to take this job?

KERLIKOWSKE: Mexico has received a huge amount of my time and attention, and I don’t think I quite expected that. I’ve had four trips to Mexico, seven trips to the border, and I’m going to make my eighth trip next week. That consumes a lot of your time and effort.

TheDC: Pres. Obama said in a recent YouTube interview that his administration is focusing more on Mexico. Can you tell me more about what needs to be done in Mexico?

KERLIKOWSKE: In the Bush administration the Mérida Initiative focused — and rightly so — on reducing violence as much as they could and improving law enforcement and the technology and equipment.

This administration is moving beyond that initiative and saying it can’t be just about law enforcement and the quality of intelligence. It also has to be about building civil society, building trust and cooperation of Mexican citizens towards law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

And as Arturo Sarukhan, the ambassador to the U.S. will tell you, “Don’t think of Mexico as just a transit country. We’re also a consumer country.” They’re dealing with their own drug problems, also. And so we helped Mexico open up their first drug court in Monterrey. I think they’re going to open their second drug court in Tijuana. So I think that trying to use the same balanced approach the next couple of years will make sense.

TheDC: American police officers can go into our country’s most dangerous neighborhoods with the expectation that unless something extreme happens, they’ll be safe. That’s not the case in Mexico. How do you introduce the civility that is at the root of civil society?

KERLIKOWSKE: Clearly President Calderon and his administration recognize that. He has been using the military to do essentially policing. Everyone recognizes, particularly the Mexicans, would be to move toward police forces rather than the military to do policing. That’s critical. But right now, the level of violence — Juarez always comes to mind — is one that the military has been taking on.

TheDC: The U.S. has invested a lot of money in training the military and the police to fight the cartels. Looking back, do you think we should’ve invested in civil society reforms sooner? The violence doesn’t seem to be ebbing.

KERLIKOWSKE: I think — and the research bears this out — that when you put a lot of pressure on these gangs, when you interrupt their system, a natural outcome is violence. The shelf life of a cartel leader is a lot shorter. These organized crime gangs are now fighting for turf and for control. But it’s very hard for me to go back and say, “You should’ve been concentrating on this first,” because I think we’re trying to deal with the violence and with getting the SSP and others coordinated and working properly. And they’ve made a lot of progress.

TheDC: How’s that drug court in Monterrey doing?

KERLIKOWSKE: There are about 30 people who have gone through it. And remember, this is in the context of Mexico changing its entire legal system from the oral advocacy system that they’ve had. But the last I’ve heard is that they had a good start.

NEXT: The marijuana issue isn't going away: Will the government change its approach?