Meet the new drug czar, not especially different from the old drug czar:
The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno….”Legalization is not in the president’s vocabulary, and it’s not in mine,” he said.
….”Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,” Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS — Save Our Sierra — a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County.
It’s disappointing to hear him say that — and a bit cowardly. But hardly unexpected. Despite a flurry of optimism a few months ago, Obama and Kerlikowske have obviously come to the same conclusion as all of their predecessors: this isn’t a fight worth fighting. They’ve got other fish to fry, they know perfectly well there’s no support for marijuana legalization in Congress, and there’s no political upside in taking the side of a bunch of potheads. It’s better to simply denounce the demon pot, provide the culture warriors with nothing to complain about, and move on.
We might legalize marijuana someday — de facto if not de jure — but not today. Maybe in another ten years or so.
