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I'm disappointed that Obama didn't select someone from a southern border city for this post – the drug war is being fought primarily on the US-Mexican border in cities like Phoenix and El Paso. Thanks to failed drug war policy, Phoenix is now one of the kidnap capitals of the world.

AS A TYPE II DIABETIC, BOOZE IS LIKE POISION TO ME AND THE 20+ MILLION DIABETICS. IS IT SO CRIMINAL THAT I WORK A STRESSFUL JOB, I AM A RESPONSIBLE ADULT, CAPABLE OF MAKING MATURE DECISIONS. BUT I WOULD LIKE TO DECOMPRESS AFTER A HARD DAY AND MELLOW OUT. A BONE IN THE COMFORT OF MY PAID FOR HOME, SHOULD BE MY RIGHT NOT A CRIMINAL ACT.
THE LEGAL FRATURNITY, MAKES A TON OF MONEY BUSTING A PERSON FOR A JOINT. HOWEVER BERNARD MADOFF, IS FREE , WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR PRIORITIES REMEMBER THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT, BROUGHT ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME. LETS RETHINK OUR CHOICES.

This position should be eliminated.

gateway drug? you should be ashamed to use that pathetic term. if weed is a gateway drug.... then so are cigarretts

Marijuana should be legal...I think the bulk of Americans agree with that. It is no worse than cigarettes and NOT a gateway to anything. You know what IS the mother of all gateway drugs? Alcohol. And not just a gateway to other drugs, but also a gateway to disease and injury. Our drug policy is backwards.

We haven't won a war since 1945 – what makes anybody thinks this one will be any different? Spend lots of money, carnage of innocent people everywhere – but its "The moral thing to do."
Hogwash, The pushers need a PAC.

Hey Irv,

Put down the bottle. You don't know what you are talking about.

IRV, you are CLUELESS.

Pot should be legal. Do you think it is luck that our govt. made legal two drugs that will get you addicted but not kill you for a long time. they knew what they were doing.

FreeNLovit:

So... God will wipe us off the map for using a plant he created?

I believe that children should be raised drug free, but the best way to do that is to take the drugs out of the hands of unregulated street dealers and put the control into the hands of the FDA and licensed pharmacists. And you can tax it too!!! Just remember: marijuana is California's #1 cash crop! Just think of the revenue they could pour back into the states if we legalized and regulated marijuana sales.

Remember: just a few months before 9/11/01, the Bush administration gave $350 million to the Taliban in return for destroying Afghan poppy fields. There is a good chance that the Taliban used some of that money to help Al Qaeda fund running planes into the Towers and the Pentagon. So the "War on Drugs" runs counter to other "wars" that we NEED to fight.

If canabis were legalized and taxed, we would have less of a jail burden and not need a stimulous package. A tax burden on our children would not be a concern, nor would money for schools be a problem. I am not pro-drugs, just saying.

Should have picked RUSH, he knows where all the drugs are.

Maybe he can concentrate on "drugs" instead of plants. The fact that people go to jail for smoking pot while liquor is totally legal is ludicrous !

Pot is addictive. Pot harms the lungs. Pot is a gateway drug. We need a war on the terror of drugs, which is holding our economy, our neighborhoods, and our minds hostage.

Michael Phelps or A Rod for drug czar. Or how about Limbaugh – he knows a lot about illegal prescriptions and addiction.

Legalize it, tax the heck out of it and there's your bailout.

Freenlovit-

So do you believe we should add alcohol and tobacco to the list of prohibited substances as well?

Free God's Herb!

This is one of the best choices the President has made. Chief Kerlikowske is a good man and will make an excellent addition to the administraton. He has a sharp mind and a fine character. Obama gets another good one!

Legalize Pot and the drug lords will go away.

Legalize marijuana, and the drug lords will have less power/money and the government will get more revenue.

Having lived in Seattle for 20 years and experience the inept abilities of Gil as head of the Police Department I don't expect much better from him as a cabinet member!

It's worth fighting the war on drugs. It's worth bringing and raising up kids, drug-free. It's worth teaching them how to naturally cope with stress and live above the levels of sins and drugs. As a Christian, unfortunately, you ALL may be right. According to the Bible, in the last days, EARTH will be just like in Noah's Days – men evil in every form of life. In Noah's day, it was so horrible that God had to send the flood to destroy all life forms. Well, I guess Armageddon is knocking!!

In fact, cannabis has no lethal dosage, PERIOD.

Alcohol and nicotine both have tight margins of lethal toxicity. Even water has an attainable level of toxicity in the human body. Cannabis does not.

America is a free country is it not? Legalize cannabis like alcohol.

What a waste of $$$. Let's see the "War on Drugs" has gone one for like what 40 years now, what has it actually accomplished? Half the country has smoked pot, meth was a HUGE thing for the last 10-15 years and I'm sure there have been more problems with this "war". The 1st day he should legalize marijuana since most of the country has woken up to the fact that pot isn't as bad as the gov't has been trying to make you believe over the past 80 years!

Legalize marijuana, tax it, generate badly needed revenue created by illegal and un-Constitutional tax cuts, eliminate drug dealers' profit margin, provide national health care, save lives in the process, and stop over crowding in our jails. By Jove, I think we have a winning solution to some of this nation's problems.

Cool!

As a personal, casual marijuana user in Canada, I hope that Mr. Kerlikowske severely lessens the Reaganesque "War on Drugs", which is really just a waste of so many resources. Luckily Mr. Kerlikowske understands the difference between criminal drug trafficking and private, responsible use of safer drugs like marijuana.

Another figurehead scapegoat to take the heat off of the lightweight.

Right...........................................cut it out of the budget and get reid of the all the CORRUPT policians and police. Save some $$.

Make sure he checks on potbelly Rush

what happened to combing through the budget eliminating wasteful spending? Stop the war on drugs, decriminalize Marijuana, legalize hemp production, and save a couple hundred billion a year. you don't have legalize cocaine, just quit pouring money into a lost cause.

legalize marijuana already and we'll be out of debt!

Personally, I do not believe a police officer should be in control of this area. They should have a board with different members from different fields.

I just hope this guy recognizes the difference between cannabis and other hard drugs. It's time we draw a line.

Cannabis is a safer substance than alcohol and tobacco, therefore it should be legalized, taxed, and regulated.

Let's stop throwing non-violent cannabis consumers in jail. It's a waste of space and waste of tax dollars.

Somebody needs to point out, in the War on Drugs, the Drugs won!

Need to save some deficit money, legalize pot! Quit spending our hard earned tax payers money on trying to arrest Michael Phelps!

Prohibition is a failed policy wasting precious taxpayer money. In a time where need to look at spending reduction, this area should be wide open for reduction. This country's war on drugs is costing too many lives for the benefit we are receiving.

When will we quit being such Ruskies with Czars?

The so-called "drug war" is over. We lost. Get over it. Stop throwing good money after bad. Move on.

Don't worry our president love to do drugs

how about a war on poverty? -tupac .... too many billions going down the train to support minor offense users in jail. smoke a joint, get free cabel. what exactly is our message on drugs? if mary-jane was legailized we would be sitting on the biggest cash crop our nation has seen in 100 years! legalize it, tax it, get it together people!!

The "War On Drugs", like prisons, has become a growth industry, and should be abolished. Did we learn nothing from Prohibition? The similarities are striking, to say the least.

FREE MICHAEL PHELPS!!!

Carlo- Draft dodgers? Like Bill Clinton?

I thought it would be Michael Phelps!

I miss Nancy Reagan's message of Say No to Drugs. I cant believe how powerful the drug warlords are!! War on drugs abandoned? Are U nuts!!! I dont want my 5-year-old nieces and nephews coming HOME high on cocaine!! That's crazy. We can win the war on drugs if we treat it like the War on Terror, but we dont and that's because it's all about the $$$$. Money is the root of all evil.

Has he paid his taxes?

I wonder if he paid his taxes.

And on it goes as Obama desparately tries to throw this country in socialism and 13th centry practices in medicine

Great, with the deficit growing like it is because of the porkulus bill, we can use more back tax money from Obama appointees.

Hopefully she has some fresh ideas on the "drug war" and how to address the issue.

There is a real issue with Mexico that needs to be halted immediately.

We need the full force of the US military brought down on drug cartels that have spread into Northern Mexico and are spilling their destructive practices across the border.

Murder, kidnapping, drug trafficing in the US carried out by Mexicans or Americans working as agents of Mexicans is not acceptable. The Mexican police is either too corupt or impotent to smash these people so we've got to do it.

Drug Czar?

What the country needs is to enforce the laws already on the books, plus an aggressive drug prevention plan, Stop blaming the other guy, the Colombians, the Mexicans, the Taliban Etc.. and All of that is nothing but poor excuses. The US is the biggest consumer of illegal substances in the world, if you don’t have a market, suppliers don’t have an incentive to cross the borders with drugs.
Remember is a US problem, don’t blame the other guy, or start blaming breweries for alcoholism.

Clean your house, and the rest will follow.

Is he a convicted drug dealer, like Geithner is an admitted tax cheat?

Has he paid his taxes??

This position should be eliminated and the war on drugs should be abandoned.

Kind of makes sense to put a cop in charge of drug enforcement. Certainly makes more sense that taking advice from draft dodgers Cheney and Wolfowitz about drugs.

Cue GOPers blathering about Obama's drug use as a kid...

Legalize marijuana, and a large portion of the "drug problem" will go away. There are alot of peole in jai and for what? America's "War On Drugs" is a sick joke on the American people. Our drug policy is outdated and hypocritical and most of the laws are racistly biased (i.e. crack vs cocaine sentencing guidlines)
Everytime somebody get's high is a loss for America in the War on drugs, meaning that America is losing the war on drugs and like the war in Iraq this probably a war that we should not be fighting. Nonetheless there are drugs out there that we should be protected from and some drug policy should be in place.

Unless this new 'czar' intends to lead the charge to drastically reform marijuana laws in this country, we will have more of the same. Many people are unaware that the number one cash crop of violent Mexican narcotraffickers is actually marijuana.

While this drug causes little to no crime by its use, maintaining its possession and sale as prosecutable offenses allows these criminals to make money hand over fist on their farms both in Mexico and in the United States, as well as funding their violent acts along the border. A new tack on this would be appreciated by freedom-minded, pragmatic liberals and conservatives alike.

Good. Now stop raiding CA dispensaries whoa re giving out medicine to AIDS, MS and cancer patients.

Michael Phelps for drug czar

I hope he starts his first day by investigating the prescription drug habits of Rush.

Then, start finding out why pharmacutical companies are allowed to get away with charging so much for legal drugs when people are arrested for things like pot which is no where near as lethal as oxicontin.