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R.
Gil Kerlikowske
U.S.
Drug Czar
October
2009
The Department
of Justice earlier this week issued guidelines for Federal prosecutors
regarding laws authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
This prompted a flurry of news reports, analysis and commentary,
some arguing that the guidelines could be read as the Federal government’s
tacit approval of “medical” marijuana. Advocates of
marijuana legalization tried to cast the guidelines as a victory,
portraying them as a step toward full legalization. Neither of these
analyses is correct.
Marijuana legalization, for any purpose, remains a non-starter in
the Obama Administration. It is not something that the President
and I discuss; it isn’t even on the agenda. Attorney General
Holder issued very clear guidelines to U.S. Attorneys about the
appropriate use of Federal resources. He did not open the door to
legalization.
Regarding state ballot initiatives concerning “medical”
marijuana, I believe that medical questions are best decided not
by popular vote, but by science. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), which studies and approves all medicines in the United States,
has made very clear that the raw marijuana plant is not medicine,
and any state considering medical marijuana should look very carefully
at what has happened in California.
Legalization is being sold as being a cure to ending violence in
Mexico, as a cure to state budget problems, as a cure to health
problems. The American public should be skeptical of anyone selling
one solution as a cure for every single problem. Legalized, regulated
drugs are not a panacea – pharmaceutical drugs in this country
are tightly regulated and government controlled, yet we know they
cause untold damage to those who abuse them.
To test the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana, we only need
to look at already legal drugs – alcohol and tobacco. We know
that the taxes collected on these substances pale in comparison
to the social and health care costs related to their widespread
use.
In a little over three months, my office will deliver to President
Obama a National Drug Control Strategy that will strike a balance
between public health and public safety, recognizing that reducing
demand through a community-wide approach is critical to our success.
Legalization would only thwart our efforts and increase the economic
and social costs that result from greater drug acceptance and use.
R.
Gil Kerlikowske
Director
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
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