Drug Czar Gets Grilled on "New Directions in Drug Policy"
Gil Kerlikowske, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP — the drug czar’s office), testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the Obama administration is seeking "a new direction in drug policy," but was challenged both by lawmakers and by a panel of academics and activists on the point during the same hearing. The action took place at a hearing of the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee in which the ONDCP drug budget and the forthcoming 2010 National Drug Strategy were the topics at hand.
The hearing comes in the wake of various drug policy reforms enacted by the Obama administration, including a Justice Department policy memo directing US attorneys and the DEA to lay off medical marijuana in states where it is legal, the removal of the federal ban on needle exchange funding, and administration support for ending or reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenders.
But it also comes in the wake of the announcement of the ONDCP 2011 drug budget, which at $15.5 billion is up more than $500 million from this year. While treatment and prevention programs got a 6.5% funding increase, supply reduction (law enforcement, interdiction, and eradication) continues to account for almost exactly the same percentage of the overall budget — 64%–as it did in the Bush administration. Only 36% is earmarked for demand reduction (prevention and treatment).
Citing health care costs from drug use and rising drug overdose death figures, the nation "needs to discard the idea that enforcement alone can eliminate our nation’s drug problem," Kerlikowske said. "Only through a comprehensive and balanced approach — combining tough, but fair, enforcement with robust prevention and treatment efforts — will we be successful in stemming both the demand for and supply of illegal drugs in our country."
So far, at least, when it comes to reconfiguring US drug control efforts, Kerlikowske and the Obama administration are talking the talk, but they’re not walking the walk. That was the contention of subcommittee chair Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and several of the session’s panelists.
"Supply side spending has not been effective," said Kucinich, challenging the budget breakdown.
"Supply side spending is important for a host of reasons, whether we’re talking about eradication or our international partners where drugs are flowing," replied the drug czar.
"Where’s the evidence?" Kucinich demanded. "Describe with statistics what evidence you have that this approach is effective."
Kerlikowske was reduced to citing the case of Colombia, where security and safety of the citizenry has increased. But he failed to mention that despite about $4 billion in US anti-drug aid in the past decade, Colombian coca and cocaine production remain at high levels.
"What parts of your budget are most effective?" asked Kucinich.
"The most cost-effective approaches would be prevention and treatment," said Kerlikowske.
"What percentage is supply and what percentage is demand oriented?" asked Rep. Jim Jordan (D-OH).
"It leans much more toward supply, toward interdiction and enforcement," Kerlikowske conceded.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was more old school, demanding a tougher response to Mexico’s wave of prohibition-related violence and questioning the decision not to eradicate opium in Afghanistan. "The Southwest border is critical. I would hope the administration would give you the resources you need for a Plan Colombia on steroids," said Issa.
"There is no eradication program in Afghanistan," Issa complained. "I was in areas we did control and we did nothing about eradication."
"I don’t think anyone is comfortable seeing US forces among the poppy fields," Kerlikowske replied. "Ambassador Holbrooke has taken great pains to explain the rationale for that," he added, alluding to Holbrooke’s winning argument that eradication would push poppy farming peasants into the hands of the Taliban.
"The effectiveness of eradication seems to be near zero, which is very interesting from a policy point of view," interjected Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL).
Kucinich challenged Kerlikowske about harm reduction. "At the UN, you said the US supported many interventions, but you said that, ‘We do not use the phrase harm reduction.’ You are silent on both syringe exchange programs and the issue of harm reduction interventions generally," he noted. "Do you acknowledge that these interventions can be effective in reducing death and disease, does your budget proposed to fund intervention programs that have demonstrated positive results in drug overdose deaths, and what is the basis of your belief that the term harm reduction implies promotion of drug use?"
Kerlikowske barely responded. "We don’t use the term harm reduction because it is in the eye of the beholder," he said. "People talk about it as if it were legalization, but personally, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about whether to put a definition on it."
When challenged by Kucinich specifically about needle exchange programs, Kerlikowske conceded that they can be effective. "If they are part of a comprehensive drug reduction effort, they make a lot of sense," he said.
The grilling of Kerlikowske took up the first hour of the two-hour session. The second hour consisted of testimony from Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann, Brookings Institute foreign policy fellow and drugs and counterinsurgency expert Vanda Felbab-Brown, former ONDCP employee and drug policy analyst John Carnevale, and University of Maryland drug policy expert Peter Reuter. It didn’t get any better for drug policy orthodoxy…
