After Monday’s roundtable in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Drug Czar Kerlikowske will continue through the midwest.
St. Louis, MO, Tuesday morning
On Tuesday (Sept. 1) at St. Louis City Hall, Kerlikowske will unveil a new, national meth advertising and prevention blitz. […] Next Tuesday’s event begins at 10 a.m. in the City Hall rotunda.
Southern Illinois, Tuesday afternoon
CARTERVILLE – White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske will visit John A. Logan College from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Tuesday for a methamphetamine round table discussion.
The discussion will be attended by representatives of law enforcement, drug treatment, drug prevention and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The meeting will be closed to the public.
Given that a huge part of this tour is about meth, it’ll be interesting to see if Kerlikowske gets any questions about the new dangerous meth process that doesn’t require a lab (and has already been talked about in comments). Meth, in its various forms, is a perfect example of the side effects of prohibition.
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Charles Homan has a great article: The Bushie Obama Can’t Fire about “Dr.” David Murray (I’ve written about him numerous times). It’s a great piece.
“He was brought in as a political hatchet man,†says Ross Deck, a former ONDCP analyst and a 16-year-veteran of the office who quit during the Walters years. Before joining in the ONDCP, Murray had no prior experience in addiction science, or law enforcement, or anything else particularly related to drug policy.
He is on the record questioning many of the drug policies espoused by Kerlikowske. Congress has spent three years trying to get him fired.
Why, then, does David Murray somehow still have a job in the Obama administration? The reason can be found in the fine print of the federal bureaucracy.
Homans destroys David Murray. It’s also interesting that, although Murray is at the ONDCP as chief scientist, we’ve heard nothing from him.
And now, right after Homan’s article, the Drug Czar’s “blog” touts the experts they have working on long-term policy goals for increasing the Nation’s focus on preventing and treating substance abuse. David Murray isn’t even mentioned.
Currently there are three experts on detail to ONDCP: Dr. Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University; Dr. Murray Kopelow, Chief Executive, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education; and Mike Lowther, Director of the Division of State Programs at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
Apparently David Murray is not only consigned to the back room counting paper clips, but the Drug Czar wants us to know it.
Well at least Murray has no background in law enforcement.
That’s a surprise considering he works for ONDCP.
Interesting how so many of these ONDCP ‘scientists’ and supposed ‘medical professionals’ seem to have developed extraordinarily large retinal blind spots regarding the scientific method and cannabis.
For example, they keep saying that it’s ‘dangerous’ while they ignore the fact that there is no actual LD-50 (at which 50% of people receiving a dose would die from it) for cannabis.
If this Administration truly wants to make good on its’ promise to have science-based policies instead of ideologically-based ones, then the cannabis laws are the best place to start. And having Lysenkoist hacks like Murray around is less than helpful towards that purpose.
I can’t wait for the new exciting approach to meth. I wonder if it includes asinine commercials and locking more addicts up?
If they have to spend money, it might as well be on some more commercials because God knows those things will be released someday on DVD as comedy classics from decades before.
The ONDCP’s David Murry really is a kick you don’t want to miss. It’s scary but fun watching Murry do his bluster, befuddle and brimstone act. Murry can go on and on and on blabbing out complete poppycock with a fained conviction and pumped up fervor.
Murry is, oddly enough, the quintessential 21 century snake oil salesman. Dog help us.
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=3807&print=Y