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Change in Drug Policy



By Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

April, 2009

It looked like business as usual in the first days of President Obama’s presidency. The Drug Enforcement Administration raided two medical marijuana dispensaries in California. The US delegation to the United Nations blocked harm reduction measures, such as sterile syringe programs and treatment for drug addiction, in talks concerning a new UN drug policy strategy in Vienna.

Then things began to change. White House spokesperson Nick Shapiro announced that the DEA raids on dispensaries would not continue after President Obama appointed a new Administrator saying, "The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws." As a candidate Obama, along with all the other Democratic candidates and two Republican candidates, had pledged to stop the raids.

Several days later, on his first day on the job, Attorney General Eric Holder said in response to a question about the raids, "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing in law enforcement.” There have been no more raids.

The United States gave its negotiators at the United Nations summit new guidelines: "The US will endorse and support needle exchange programs." Obama is a long standing supporter of the programs. However, the US has not supported all harm reduction measures endorsed by the Europeans and the term “harm reduction” may not appear in the final UN declaration.

President Obama’s choice for director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the drug czar, is the clearest indicator that meaningful reforms may be on the horizon. He is Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske. Seattle was among the first cities to implement syringe exchange programs. The city categorizes marijuana arrests as the lowest law enforcement priority and has implemented innovative overdose prevention strategies. The State of Washington legalized medical marijuana ten years ago.

Multiple sources report that Tom McLellan, Ph.D., cofounder and CEO of the Treatment Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, will be named deputy director of demand reduction at ONDCP. McLellan is a highly respected researcher specializing in treatment quality and outcomes measurement.

These developments could be isolated incidents or they could be signals that the Obama administration intends to focus federal drug policy on harm reduction and begin to cede marijuana policy to the states. That would be the biggest change in drug policy since alcohol prohibition was repealed in 1933.

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