wait, more legitimately promising news....

woot!

Legislation to Overhaul Rockefeller Drug Laws Moves Ahead Swiftly
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: February 28, 2009

Flat Stanley cannot find a vein!

Obama names Jeffrey S. Crowley head of AIDS policy office

I am thinking he is good news!

Housing Works does not like anyone this much:
“I think he’s a phenomenal choice,” said Housing Works Vice President of National Advocacy and Organizing Christine Campbell.

He is third author on this 2002 ajph article:
Critical Policy Challenges in the Third Decade of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Kates et al. 92 (7): 1060.
&
AP article here

we are not so rational.

Struggling States Look to Unorthodox Taxes

By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: February 28, 2009

.....And so it was last month that Mr. Miloscia, a Democrat, decided he might try to “find a new tax source” — pornography.

The response, however, was a turn-off.

“People came down on me like a ton of bricks,” said Mr. Miloscia, who proposed an 18.5 percent sales tax on everything from sex toys to adult magazines. “I didn’t quite understand. Apparently porn is right up there with mom and apple pie.” ....

Morgellons

I have heard at least one zillion descriptions of similar symptoms, but tonight was the first time I had heard anyone attribute them to Morgellons. Of course, the exchanger who told me about Morgellons rode his story right off the rails; it causes syringes to clog and his lesions hide when doctors examine him....

CDC: General Information - Unexplained Dermopathy
Mayo Clinic
NPR story
SF Chronicle Story

very funny

 I truly laughed out loud. 

Bill Maher on Tavis Smiley - listen to it here  

Maher: (Laughs) Well, they've said that about me for years. (Laughter) I used to do that joke; people said you hate America first. And I said, no, I have my coffee, I burn the American flag, I perform a few abortions, and then I get around to hating America. (Laughter) But certainly not first.

...

Maher: If you're patriotic, you criticize your own country. You want to make it better.

Tavis: But you got in trouble for doing that, though.

Maher: Yeah, I got in trouble and I had a show on in six months. (Laughter) I was off the air for six months. Kept the same office, the same phone number. Been in the same office since 1995. That's gangsta, Tavis. (Laughter) When you get fired and they can't even get you off the lot. I just switched networks. 

 ....

Maher: Newspapers are going out of business. What's my financial adviser going to sleep under? 

...

Maher: Christians - it's funny, when they criticize me they usually say, "I'm praying for you," and they kind of pat me on the head, like, "You just don't get it. You're unenlightened; you haven't seen the lord. The light hasn't come into your life."

They look at me like a retarded child, you know - "He doesn't quite get it." Well, one of us doesn't get it. I think it would probably be the people who are still living by the Bronze Age myth about the space god who came down that - and I know I'm probably insulting you here because you're probably a Christian.

...

Maher: Well, yeah, that kind of faith, you're right, I'm against. Faith, if you define it as the purposeful suspension of critical thinking, yes, I don't think that's a good thing.

pretty funny

dear dj just introduced me to this4
F*** My Life - FML : Your everyday life stories.

San Francisco Chronicle Woes

I want to be sad about this. I do. I also want there to be a San Francisco paper worth reading. I want to read articles about local issues that bear some resemblance to reality and contain at least some shred of local perspective. I have never found these articles in the Chronicle. Additionally, if the Chronicle's closing means fewer people read what the demented CW Nevius has to say, then I might even have cause to celebrate.

    San Francisco Chronicle may shut down

      Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:21pm EST

By Robert MacMillan and Janet Kornblum

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco may lose its main newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, as owner Hearst Corp cuts a "significant" number of jobs and decides whether to shut or sell the money-losing daily.

More great news....

or not. 

JAMA

Vol. 301 No. 8, February 25, 2009

Accessing Antiretroviral Therapy Following Release 

From Prison 

Jacques Baillargeon, PhD; Thomas P. Giordano, MD, MPH; Josiah D. Rich, MD, MPH; Z. Helen Wu, PhD; Katherine Wells, MPH; Brad H. Pollock, PhD, MPH; David P. Paar, MD 

JAMA. 2009;301(8):848-857. 

Context  Interruption of antiretroviral therapy (ART) during the first weeks after release from prison may increase risk for adverse clinical outcomes, transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and drug-resistant HIV reservoirs in the community. The extent to which HIV-infected inmates experience ART interruption following release from prison is unknown. 

Objectives  To determine the proportion of inmates who filled an ART prescription within 60 days after release from prison and to examine predictors of this outcome. 

Design, Setting, and Participants  Retrospective cohort study of all 2115 HIV-infected inmates released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system between January 2004 and December 2007 and who were receiving ART before release. 

Main Outcome Measure  Proportion of inmates who filled an ART prescription within 10, 30, and 60 days of release from prison. 

Results  Among the entire study cohort (N = 2115), an initial prescription for ART was filled by 115 (5.4%) inmates within 10 days of release (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.5%-6.5%), by 375 (17.7%) within 30 days (95% CI, 16.2%-19.4%), and by 634 (30.0%) within 60 days (95% CI, 28.1%-32.0%). In a multivariate analysis of predictors (including sex, age, race/ethnicity, viral load, duration of ART, year of discharge, duration of incarceration, parole, and AIDS Drug Assistance Program application assistance), 

Hispanic and African American inmates were less likely to fill a prescription within 10 days (adjusted estimated risk ratio [RR], 0.4 [95% CI, 0.2-0.8] and 0.4 [95% CI, 0.3-0.7], respectively) and 30 days (adjusted estimated RR, 0.7 [95% CI, 0.5-0.9] and 0.7 [95% CI, 0.5-0.9]). Inmates with an undetectable viral load were more likely to fill a prescription within 10 days (adjusted estimated RR, 1.8 [95% CI, 1.2- 2.7]), 30 days (1.5 [95% CI, 1.2-1.8]), and 60 days (1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.5]). Inmates released on parole 

were more likely to fill a prescription within 30 days (adjusted estimated RR, 1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.6]) and 60 days (1.5 [95% CI, 1.4-1.7]). Inmates who received assistance completing a Texas AIDS Drug Assistance Program application were more likely to fill a prescription within 10 days (adjusted estimated RR, 3.1 [95% CI, 2.0-4.9]), 30 days (1.8 [95% CI, 1.4-2.2]), and 60 days (1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.4]). 

Conclusion  Only a small percentage of Texas prison inmates receiving ART while incarcerated filled an initial ART prescription within 60 days of their release. 

Is this too rational for us?

read the text of the bill here

from the Drug Policy Alliance: 

California Bill to Tax, Regulate Marijuana

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 California could become the first state to tax and regulate marijuana. With the state facing the worst budget deficit in generations, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill earlier this week to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Marijuana is California's number one cash crop worth multiple billions each year. Assemblyman Ammiano's bill would regulate that market like beer, wine and liquor while barring access to those under 21. Hundreds of drug policy reformers in California are supporting his commonsense plan by writing letters to their local papers. Annual revenues from fees and excise taxes could be in the billions, and Californians could save another billion a year that they now spend on marijuana prohibition. Plus, this bill will put an end to tens of thousands of marijuana arrests made each year statewide. Marijuana reform has a new champion in Sacramento. Supporters can help by telling their local paper that they support Tom Ammiano's landmark bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Last November, DPA put Proposition 5 on the California state ballot, a proposition that would have rehabilitated California's broken prisons and cut spending by at least $2.5 billion. While we didn't win, with the help of hundreds of supporters we educated California on the need for real prison reform. As the state now faces an imminent federal takeover of the entire prison system, California elected officials know that we were right in calling for real reform, and that the solutions we fought for last year are the same ones the state needs now. DPA will continue working in Sacramento to keep the pressure on, promoting real prison reform and working for the taxation and regulation of marijuana.

How often does this happen?

LA Times article just wrong. Fail.

YouTube looks out for content owners, disables video ripping

3:39 PM, February 19, 2009

2 ways to download youtube videos: 

1) in Safari, go to the "activity" window

open the files listed with the youtube page containing the video you want to download

find the largest file, probably the only one in MB

double click it

2) use the realplayer downloader

The video will download as a ".flv" file. (if you want to play it with quicktime, you need perian.)

skipping the oscars means I apparently also missed this gem...

"You look like you work in a Hasidic meth lab."  – Natalie Portman, to Ben Stiller 

google gears mod or, the super dorky thing I just did when I should have been studying...

My lovely dj just pointed out that this is the unnecessarily complicated way to do this. You can also just drag a url to the desktop and change the icon. me dorkdork.

---

Use Google Gears to create web shortcuts for any site you want in your mac dock:

1) when google gears asks if you want to create a shortcut on the desktop, say yes. 

(I am using the google docs shortcut as an example)

2) duplicate it

3) rename so you know what website it will open

4) right click on the copy.app and "Show Package Contents"

5) open /Contents/MacOS/launch.sh in a text editor

depending on which browser your shortcut uses, the text will say
"#!/bin/sh
"`dirname "$0"`/launch_url_with_browser" '/Applications/Firefox.app' 'http://docs.google.com/'"

OR
"#!/bin/sh
"`dirname "$0"`/launch_url_with_browser" '/Applications/Safari.app' 'http://docs.google.com/'

(you can have a shortcut for each, as long as they have a different name)

7) replace http://docs.google.com/ with the url of the website where you want your shortcut to lead

example of changed version:

"#!/bin/sh
"`dirname "$0"`/launch_url_with_browser" '/Applications/Safari.app' 'http://www.nytimes.com/'

8) change the icon the regular way or by replacing the icons.icns file with a different image

(this site has some useful web app icons)

so sweet

OK, I did not care enough about the Oscar awards to actually watch them but, I adamantly wanted Sean Penn to win for Milk. Examiner.com posted the videos of Dustin Lance Black's and Sean Penn's acceptance speeches. Even though I am still waiting for Dustin Lance Black to remember how much Shilts's book inspired him..."You'd have to be a bona fide sociopath not to tear up at this"

miles to go.

>>ok, ok. I am adding the good news. If you are an IDU who does not engage in high risk sex, (you are probably a heroin addict), your HIV risk has remained stable. needle exchange works, bitches.

released last week by the CDC:

"Cases of HIV Infection and AIDS in the United States and Dependent Areas, 2007

HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, Volume 19

Highlights of Analyses

Cases of HIV/AIDS, HIV Incidence, and Cases of AIDS

Cases of HIV/AIDS

From 2004 through 2007, the estimated number of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in the 34 states with confidential name-based HIV infection reporting increased 15% (Table 1). In 2007, the estimated rate of HIV/AIDS cases in the 34 states was 21.1 per 100,000 population (Table 6a). ...

Sex: From 2004 through 2007, the estimated number of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases increased approximately 18% among males and 8% among females (Table 1). In 2007, males accounted for 74% of all HIV/AIDS cases among adults and adolescents. In 2007, HIV/AIDS rates among adults and adolescents were 38.8 per 100,000 among males and 12.9 per 100,000 among females (Table 6a).

Transmission category: Among men, from 2004 through 2007, the estimated number of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases increased among men who have sex with men (MSM) and remained stable among injection drug users (IDUs) (Table 1). The estimated numbers of HIV/AIDS diagnoses increased among male and female adults and adolescents with HIV infection attributed to high-risk heterosexual contact (heterosexual contact with a person known to have, or to be at high risk for, HIV infection). The estimated numbers of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases decreased among female IDUs, MSM who were also IDUs, and among children. MSM (53%) and persons exposed through high-risk heterosexual contact (32%) accounted for 85% of all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in the 34 states in 2007.

Of all HIV infections diagnosed in 2006 in the 34 states with confidential name-based HIV reporting, 36% progressed to AIDS within 12 months after HIV infection was diagnosed. AIDS was diagnosed within 12 months after the diagnosis of HIV infection for larger percentages of persons aged 35 years and older, Hispanics/Latinos, male IDUs, and males with HIV infection attributed to high-risk heterosexual contact (Table 2)."

Republicans, stop pretending. The jig is up.

You are against vast government spending or, you are not. Spending on prison for salvia dealers of all things, guess what? 

from the drug policy alliance:

"DPA Leading the Fight Against a Ban on Salvia in Maryland

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Policymakers in Maryland have an opportunity to choose reason over prohibition this legislative season when considering Senate Bill 9 (R-Colburn), a bill that would classify Salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb which is currently legal to use in Maryland, as a Schedule I substance. If passed the bill would impose misdemeanor and felony penalties, including prison terms of up to 20 years for selling salvia." ....

thanks, wonkette! maybe alan keyes IS batshit crazy...

Daddy's little girl

I had to add this one...

This is a Great Health Policy Resource

This chronology starts in 1966. The section included below starts with the first prohibition on funds for clean needle distribution.   Maybe 20 years the charm...

sign the HRC's letter supporting an overturn of the ban here

NIDA Legislative Chronology

...

"1989 and 1990—P.L. 101-166 and P.L. 101-517, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Acts for FY 1990 and 1991, contained identical prohibitions precluding the use of funds provided under these enactments to carry out any program of distributing sterile needles.

1992—P.L. 102-321, the ADAMHA Reorganization Act, transferred NIDA to NIH; earmarked 15% of the Institute's research appropriation for health services research; established a Medication Development Program within NIDA; provided authority to designate Drug Abuse Research Centers for interdisciplinary research on drug abuse and related biomedical, behavioral, and social issues; and created an Office on AIDS at NIDA.

P.L. 102-394, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education FY 1993 Appropriations Act, provided that up to $2 million of NIDA research funds be available to carry out section 706 of P.L. 102-321, which required the HHS Secretary, acting through NIDA, to request a National Academy of Sciences study of U.S. programs that provide both sterile hypodermic needles and bleach.

1993—P.L. 103-112, the Department of Labor, HHS and Education FY 1994 Appropriations Act, prohibited the use of funds under the Act for any further implementation of section 706 of P.L. 102-321 (see above) and any program for distributing sterile needles.

1994 and 1996—P.L. 103-333, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Act for FY 1995; P.L. 104-134, the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act for FY 1996; and P.L. 104-208, the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 1997—each prohibited use of any funds provided in the enactments to carry out any program of distributing sterile needles.

1997—P.L. 105-78, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriation Act for FY 1998, continued prior restrictions on needle-exchange programs through March 31, 1998, permitting funding thereafter of those programs meeting certain statutory requirements including criteria of the HHS Secretary.

1998—P.L. 105-277, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act-1999, restored the general prohibition on funds for needle exchange programs; statutorily reestablished ONDCP in the Executive Office of the President with significantly expanded authority over drug control agencies; and required ONDCP to conduct a 4-year (FYs 1999-2002) national anti-drug media campaign aimed at youth.

1999—P.L. 106-113, the Consolidated Appropriations Act-2000, continued the ban on funding of sterile needle and syringe exchange programs; prohibited use of appropriated funds for promotion of legalization of any Schedule I controlled substance; and postponed termination of NIDA's triennial report until 5/15/2000.

2000—P.L. 106-554, the Consolidated Appropriations Act-2001, authorized the Director of NIH to negotiate a long-term lease for research facilities at Baltimore's Bayview Campus, and continued prior prohibitions on funding of sterile needle/syringe exchange programs and on promotion of legalization of Schedule I controlled substances.

P.L. 106-310, the Children's Health Act of 2000, repealed the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966 [P.L. 89-793]; waived certain requirements of the Controlled Substances Act to permit qualified physicians to engage in office-based treatment of opiate dependence; and authorized expansion of NIDA research on methamphetamine and increased emphasis on Ecstasy research.

2001—P.L. 107-116, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education FY 2002 Appropriations Act, continued prior prohibitions on funding of sterile needle and syringe exchange programs and on legalization of Schedule I controlled substances.

2002—Title II of P.L. 107-273, the Drug Abuse Education, Prevention, and Treatment Act of 2002, authorized NIDA expansion of interdisciplinary research and clinical trials with treatment centers of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network; and required a NIDA study on development of medications for amphetamine/methamphetamine addiction.

2003—Division G of P.L. 108-7, the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education FY 2003 Appropriations Act, continued prior prohibitions on funding of sterile needle and syringe exchange programs and on legalization of Schedule I controlled substances.

2004—P.L. 108-358, the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 2004 significantly expanded the list of anabolic steroids classified as controlled substances; required a review of Federal sentencing guidelines; and authorized $15 million, for each of the next fiscal years through 2009, for educational programs in schools to highlight the dangers of steroids, with preference given to programs deemed effective by NIDA.

2005—P.L. 109-56, amended the Controlled Substances Act to lift the patient limitations imposed on medical practitioners in group practices regarding the prescribing of drug addiction treatments. Section 2013 of P.L. 109-59, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, directs the Secretary of Transportation to advise and coordinate with other Federal agencies on addressing driving under the influence of controlled substances and, in cooperation with NIH (NIDA), to submit a report to Congress on drug-impaired driving.

2006—P.L. 109-469, the ONDCP Reauthorization Act of 2006, in section 1102, amended the Controlled Substances Act to further relax the patient limitations on provision of drug addiction treatments, allowing medical practitioners to notify the HHS Secretary of need and intent to treat up to 100 patients. Section 1120 required the ONDCP Director to consult with NIH (NIDA) and the National Academy of Sciences in making policy relating to syringe exchange programs."

Washington State- SB 5516 overdose prevention legislation in state senate

This law would grant legal immunity to individuals who call 911 to report an overdose!

you can read the text of the bill here

you can read the status of the bill here

 "AN ACT Relating to drug overdose prevention; adding a new section to chapter 69.50 RCW; and creating a new section. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:  NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. 

The legislature intends to save lives by increasing timely medical attention to overdose victims through the establishment of limited immunity from prosecution for people who seek medical assistance in an overdose situation. Drug overdose is the  second leading cause of injury death in the United States, behind only motor vehicle accidents and ahead of firearms." 

more lols!

Since gmail does not give me a enough ways to procrastinate...

choose your own theme colors

from the Gmail blog:
luckily, the aspects you cannot change make this just unsatisfying enough to keep it from being a huge time suck. 

Expensive Toys

From

or, your very sweet boyfriend buys you gadgets he wants to use and is disappointed when you are not carrying all of them with you at all times: ) 

more cleo cams!

So confused.

Does this mean Bush possesses some shred of integrity? There must be a better explanation. 

Aides Say No Pardon for Libby Irked Cheney

.....The officials said Tuesday that Mr. Cheney’s lobbying campaign on behalf of Mr. Libby was far more intense than previously known, with the vice president bringing it up in countless one-on-one conversations with the president. They said Mr. Bush was unyielding to the end, already frustrated by a deluge of last-minute pardon requests from other quarters.....

Zofran for opiate withdrawal symptoms

This might go no where. In the meantime, it is pretty exciting. 

from Pharmacogenetics and Genomics

(or, check out the science daily article here)

From mouse to man: the 5-HT3 receptor modulates physical dependence on opioid narcotics.

Objectives: 

Addiction to opioid narcotics represents a major public health challenge. Animal models of one component of addiction, physical dependence, show this trait to be highly heritable. The analysis of opioid dependence using contemporary in-silico techniques offers an approach to discover novel treatments for dependence and addiction.

Methods:

In these experiments, opioid withdrawal behavior in 18 inbred strains of mice was assessed. Mice were treated for 4 days with escalating doses of morphine before the administration of naloxone allowing the quantification of opioid dependence. After haplotypic analysis, experiments were designed to evaluate the top gene candidate as a modulator of physical dependence. Behavioral studies as well as measurements of gene expression on the mRNA and protein levels were completed. Finally, a human model of opioid dependence was used to quantify the effects of the 5-HT3 antagonist ondansetron on signs and symptoms of withdrawal.

Results:

The Htr3a gene corresponding to the 5-HT3 receptor emerged as the leading candidate. Pharmacological studies using the selective 5-HT3 antagonist ondansetron supported the link in mice. Morphine strongly regulated the expression of the Htr3a gene in various central nervous system regions including the amygdala, dorsal raphe, and periaqueductal gray nuclei, which have been linked to opioid dependence in previous studies. Using an acute morphine administration model, the role of 5-HT3 in controlling the objective signs of withdrawal in humans was confirmed.

Conclusion:

These studies show the power of in-silico genetic mapping, and reveal a novel target for treating an important component of opioid addiction.

potential

maybe an actual overdose prevention study will get funded now...

Cash boost coming for stagnant U.S. medical research

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After years of stagnant funding, medical research in the United States is set for a big cash infusion that experts expect will boost work on a range of ailments as well studies involving human embryonic stem cells.

The $787 billion economic stimulus measure President Barack Obama signed on Tuesday includes $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, with more than $8 billion of it to fund medical studies and the rest to upgrade research facilities. ...

cleenuts!

elephants and dogs

Watch CBS Videos Online

Trump Entertainment files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Trump Entertainment so desperate, magnate forgoes haircut. 

reuters story here

wsj story here   

llama antibodies

When a Llama Is Laid Back, It's Not the Only Beneficiary

The engines of innovation for a promising new class of pharmaceuticals are covered in soft hair and tend to spit when irritated.

Scientists are exploiting an unusual feature of the immune system of llamas -- a South American relative of the camel -- to develop new treatments for diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer and Alzheimer's. Llamas, camels and their alpaca relatives are one of only two animal families that create extremely small antibodies, the molecules that are the soldiers of the immune system.

Antibody technology has produced a number of blockbuster drugs over the past decade, such as the cancer treatments Avastin and Erbitux and the arthritis drug Enbrel. Antibodies can be programmed to target proteins that are responsible for diseases, just like a vaccine prepares the immune system to fight viruses. They deliver drugs directly to the troublesome proteins responsible for the disease or block the action of the proteins themselves, stopping the progression of the disease.

But conventional antibodies are large, complex molecules that aren't very durable and have trouble finding their way around the body's tiny crevices. Scientists hope the tiny antibodies found in llamas and camels -- about one-tenth the size of human antibodies -- can burrow into the densely packed cells of a cancerous tumor, slip their way through the blood-brain barrier to block the build-up of plaques that cause Alzheimer's, or settle into the crevices of joints to prevent arthritis. ....

rapelay

could this be more disturbing or disgusting? nope.

arstechnica story about amazon pulling it from the site

review on somethingawful.com

cleo!

Huge decline in Baltimore overdose deaths

 I am not looking for news about Baltimore as much as news about overdose and heroin have to lead there eventually. when there is no where to go but up...

you can see the health department reports here, under "intoxication deaths"

baltimoresun.com

Baltimore intoxication deaths down in 2008

Statistics include significant decline in overdoses

The Associated Press

12:13 PM EST, February 10, 2009

Baltimore health officials say intoxication deaths were down in the first nine months of 2008, and the statistics include a significant decline in overdose deaths.

Health officials said there were 134 intoxication deaths in the city, compared to 202 during the first nine months of 2007. Deaths associated with drug abuse dropped 34 percent, while those associated with alcohol fell 6 percent. Deaths associated with heroin decreased 39 percent, cocaine deaths fell 42 percent, and methadone deaths fell 38 percent.

Health officials aren't sure why the number of deaths is down, but they say a variety of efforts are under way to expand drug treatment and educate drug users and others on how to avoid overdoses.

analysis of heroin maintenance programs

Can Heroin Maintenance Help Baltimore? 

What Baltimore can learn from the experience of other countries.
by Peter Reuter for The Abell Foundation

read the report here
read the baltimore sun story here

 

drug czar pick!

Ethan Nadelman himself on the drug policy alliance site

 drugpolicy.org  &  nytimes article below

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I wanted you to be the first to know -- we just confirmed in the last hour that President Obama selected Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to be his drug czar.

While we’re disappointed that President Obama has selected another law enforcement official instead of a major public health advocate, we’re cautiously optimistic that this nominee will support the president’s drug policy reform agenda.

What gives us hope is that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments including:

• Being among the first cities to implement syringe exchange programs;
• Legalizing medical marijuana ten years ago (statewide);
• Categorizing marijuana arrests as the lowest law enforcement priority; and
• Implementing innovative overdose prevention strategies.

Kerlikowske is clearly familiar with drug policy reforms, and has not been a forceful opponent. Although a police chief may not be an ideal pick, given President Obama's call for "shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach," we remain hopeful that he has the potential to provide much needed national leadership in implementing the president's campaign commitments.

We look forward to working with you to ensure that he fulfills President Obama's promises to treat drug abuse as a public health issue, lift the federal ban on funding syringe access, eliminate the disparity between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine, and stop the raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California.  

It's a potentially transformative moment. Together, we’ll make sure Kerlikowske follows through.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director

February 13, 2009

Seattle Police Chief May Be Next Drug Czar

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — President Obama has chosen R. Gil Kerlikowske, the chief of police in Seattle, as his drug czar, an administration official said Thursday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Chief Kerlikowske, 59, would come to the Office of National Drug Control Policy after more than eight years as the chief law enforcement official in a city known for its progressive drug laws. The appointment was first reported Tuesday on the Web sites of Seattle newspapers.

The nomination of Chief Kerlikowske, coupled with early policy pronouncements by Mr. Obama, has left those who want to change drug policy cautiously optimistic. The White House, for example, supports removing a ban on federal money for needle exchanges.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which wants drug laws eased, said Mr. Kerlikowske did not voice support for Seattle’s needle exchange or medical use of marijuana policies, but did not actively oppose them, either.

“We’d have preferred more of a public health type,” Mr. Nadelmann said. “But he’s likely to be the best drug czar we’ve seen. Not that that’s saying much.”