Drug Czar Wants States to Monitor Prescription Drug Abuse
Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske announced that one of his top priorities is curtailing abuse of prescription drugs that are readily available in the United States. “We get overly concerned about drugs coming in, but the pharmaceuticals are here already,” he said in an interview in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kerlikowske said he will push for more states to adopt prescription-monitoring programs in which doctors and pharmacists log prescriptions for addictive drugs to that law enforcement can track them.
The former Seattle police chief and current director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy said that drug abuse is a “public health problem,” and that he was stunned to learn that more Americans die from drugs than from gunshot wounds. He said he supports treatment instead of prison for non-violent drug offenders and needle-exchange programs to stop the spread of disease.
This approach is far removed from that of the Bush administration, which heavily funded law enforcement task forces and supported tough sentences for all drug offenders. Kerlikowske things marijuana should remain illegal but that public health officials—not police—should lead efforts to reduce illegal drug use.
“Legalization isn’t in the president’s vocabulary, and it certainly isn’t in mine,” he said.
