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Speaking on Fox News, Kerlikowske admitted that the U.S. is “a large consumer nation” of drugs and that the Obama Administration is working hard to combat the problem and “reduce the amount of drugs that we consume.”

A chief drugs tsar was sacked last night for claiming cannabis, Ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes. Professor David Nutt was fired after Home Secretary Alan Johnson decided he had 'no confidence' in him following his controversial remarks...

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno. The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana. "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra...

US border czar Alan Bersin warned Mexico's brutal drug cartels Tuesday that threats to target law enforcement officials on both sides of the border would be met by a "significant response." Bersin said a recent call by one cartel kingpin to ramp up violence against US and Mexican law enforcement agents was potentially of "grave significance" and was being "taken seriously" by the administration. "Should law enforcement, border patrol agents, customs officers or local and state law enforcement officers be targeted that would be considered a major departure from existing practice of the cartels, and a threat that called for...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has approved the nomination of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the national drug czar. Kerlikowske, a 36-year law enforcement veteran, has said he will take a balanced, science-based approach to the job of director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The position is commonly known as the drug czar. The Senate approved his nomination, 91-1, on Thursday. The 59-year-old Kerlikowske (kur-lih-KOW'-skee) said he will help develop a strategy to address drug-related violence along the Mexican border. While he and other officials would work to reduce the international drug supply, the biggest contribution the...

When Vice President Biden later today formally announces the nomination of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the new Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, he will also be in a way formally downgrading the office from Cabinet-level status to non-Cabinet level status. Interestingly, Biden himself criticized a similar move by then-President George HW Bush in 1989.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to be U.S. drug czar and remove the job's Cabinet designation, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kerlikowske would head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was elevated to Cabinet level under former President George W. Bush. The nomination of Kerlikowske would end a long search for a candidate to oversee U.S. efforts to fight illegal drugs. Kerlikowske was long speculated to be the front-runner, but revelations about his stepson's arrest on drug-related charged complicated the nomination process,...

President Bush's so-called “drug czar,” John P. Walters, is scheduled to be in Shasta County Thursday to participate in the launch of Operation Alesia, a multi-agency marijuana eradication operation on public lands that began this Monday. Seventeen local, state and federal agencies are participating in Operation Alesia, which has the stated goal of “education, eradication and reclamation of marijuana cultivation sites on public lands” in Shasta County, according to a press release from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest office in Redding. In a press release from his Washington, DC, office, Director of National Drug Control Policy Walters states, “America's public lands...

The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment. John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort. "Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said....

The Iraq war has left the United States military in critical condition, stretched beyond its limits in manpower and equipment and in danger of "breaking," a retired U.S. Army general said here today. "The United States Army is stumbling toward the edge of a cliff. It’s starting to unravel," said Gen. Barry McCaffrey, speaking at a homeland defense symposium. "It has about $61 billion in equipment shortages. It has a $50 billion shortfall in the vital equipment and parts you need to run a war," said the former commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command and former drug czar...

DES MOINES, IA - Sen. Charles Grassley on Wednesday called for President Bush to fire the nation's drug czar, claiming more needs to be done to combat methamphetamine abuse. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy, has been focusing too much on curbing marijuana use, said Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley said he wrote Walters calling for more action on meth and the response he received was "basically, bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo." "I think the president ought to fire the drug czar," Grassley told reporters Wednesday during a conference call. "Marijuana obviously is a very big drug problem, particularly...

White House Drug Czar Says Medical Marijuana Is 'dying Out'By Audrey McAvoy Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 29, 2005 HONOLULU (AP) - The White House drug czar said Friday that medical marijuana is "dying out" after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe pot to ease pain. John Walters, the national drug policy director, said state legislative efforts to expand medical marijuana programs have stalled in the two months since the high court's ruling overrode laws in Hawaii and nine other states. "I think it's dying out," Walters told reporters...

John Walters Hello, I am John Walters, and I look forward to chatting about what is on your mind. Jason, from Springfield, MO writes: Sir: Can you report any significant progress at securing the northern and southern land borders against drug smuggling? Are large amounts of drugs still entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and if so, what can be done? John P. WaltersWe have had remarkable cooperation with Mexico during President Fox's administration. We are not only strengthening the security at our borders, but, more importantly, we are putting much greater enforcement pressure on the criminal organizations that...

Bush Policy To Target Prescription Drugs Tracking patients' use key part of new anti-drug effort WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national anti-drug strategy will for the first time target the use of pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for nonmedical purposes, a problem that has exploded in the last decade. A key part of the strategy being released Monday involves government efforts to help states develop monitoring systems to track a patient's use of prescription medicine. The monitoring programs flag cases that indicate a pattern of abuse, such as "doctor shopping," where a patient gets prescriptions for drugs from multiple physicians....

<p>WASHINGTON — America is achieving historic successes in the war on drugs, and some high-tech gadgets may be helping to turn the tide, John P. Walters (search), the nation's drug czar, said on Wednesday.</p> <p>"We've had use go down by 11 percent by teenagers over the last two years. We haven't seen that happen in 10 years — 400,000 less kids are using drugs in 2003 than in 2001," Walters told an audience attending a counter-drug technology exhibit in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Flanked by local politicians, law enforcement and drug treatment program officials at the federal courthouse, White House drug czar John P. Walters said Wednesday in Sacramento that the U.S. government must become a more effective part of local drug prevention and treatment programs. "If we stress prevention, if we can stop young people before they start," Walters said, "we can change the face of substance abuse problems in the country for generations to come."</p>

Based on the recommendations of a joint congressional conference committee, and with pressure from the Alliance and our supporters, Congress will likely decrease federal anti-drug advertising funding for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from last year’s figure of $150 million to $145 million next year. The six-year-old ONDCP ad campaign, budgeted at an average of $180 million per year, is best known for its perplexing television ads likening teenage drug users to terrorist fundraisers. The Bush administration had sought $170 million for the agency next year, while some in the House had sought up to...

PHILADELPHIA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - At least half the groups designated as "foreign terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State Department raise money from international drug trafficking, a Bush administration official said on Thursday. White House drug czar John Walters, credited with a federal anti-drug publicity campaign linking drug use among American adolescents with the financing of terror groups, told a police group, "The American drug consumer is the single most important funder of terrorism in this hemisphere." He warned that secret channels used to ship narcotics into the United States could also transport biological or nuclear weapons. "It is a...

<p>The struggle against narco-trafficking has to be linked with the fight against terrorism, White House drug czar John P. Walters has said.</p> <p>"I believe that violence and terror are associated with drug trade," Mr. Walters said at a conference Thursday at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) today responded to White House Drug Czar John Walters' call for "a national debate" on marijuana policy by offering to debate the drug czar on national television as soon as possible. Walters, who has repeatedly avoided debates or joint appearances with representatives of MPP and other drug policy reform organizations, issued the challenge during a September 10 press conference in Seattle. Walters used the press conference to denounce Initiative 75, a measure to make arrest and prosecution of personal marijuana possession the lowest priority for Seattle police and prosecutors. As reported in...

EVERY SO OFTEN, you can see a new rip, however small, in the American cultural fabric, a subtle sign that what was once presumed to be a settled issue is now up for grabs. Last week there was a moment at a drug treatment center in Rainier Valley that was one of those times. That’s when John Walters, the White House “drug czar,” came to Seattle backed by a platoon of bodyguards—and unwittingly admitted that the feds’ 60 Years War on marijuana didn’t have the grip on the American public that it once did. Walters’ announced purpose in coming to...

<p>PORTLAND -- Drug czar John Walters said Thursday that medical marijuana is being used as a political ploy to support efforts to legalize marijuana in a state where it already poses the most serious drug abuse problem for teenagers.</p> <p>Walters said about 25 percent of teens in the metro area who report drug abuse problems say they are dependent on marijuana, compared with 15 percent who report alcohol abuse.</p>

Drug Czar Slammed for 'Silence' Against Drugs in Sports by Former Office Spokesman 7/13/03 7:39:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and Sports desks Contact: Bob Weiner or Colin Miller, 301-283-0821 or 202-329-1700 WASHINGTON, July 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- U.S. Drug Czar John Walters is being slammed for "silence" in the fight against drugs in sports by former office spokesman Bob Weiner. "The Drug Czar's silence is not golden -- it tarnishes sports," said Weiner, who wrote an oped in today's New York Post together with Colin Miller, a junior at Johns Hopkins University and vice-president of the men's Rugby team....

<p>TULSA, Okla. (AP) - The nation's drug czar recruited local religious leaders Saturday in the war on drugs.</p> <p>The call to arms came as John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, held his first news conference since announcing Thursday his national drive to enlist faith-based youth groups in anti-drug programs. The effort is the Bush administration's latest effort to expand the role of religious organizations in government services.</p>

WASHINGTON — Backers of drug reform policy say White House officials overstepped their bounds by using taxpayer funds to actively campaign against statewide ballot initiatives in the last election. One group says the federal government might have broken the law and is considering a lawsuit to bring to light what they say are unethical activities by the White House. Bruce Merkin, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said any formal suit would target the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Drug Czar John Walters, who made trips to Ohio, Nevada and Arizona in the last year to lobby...

Federal drug czar coming to Nevada Geoff Dornan, Appeal Capitol Bureau The federal director of National Drug Control Policy will visit Reno this week to push for voter rejection of a Nevada ballot question legalizing marijuana. John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, has a series of meetings scheduled with state and local law enforcement, prevention and treatment advocates and public officials Thursday and Friday. According to his aides, he will "discuss the dangers of marijuana use and the threats posed by initiatives seeking to legalize or decriminalize marijuana." Walters already has visited Southern Nevada this year. Aides said Walters...

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has sent a letter to the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, with copies to CSPI’s friends in Congress, complaining that NASCAR and anti-drug public service announcements don’t mix. CSPI singled out the use of driver Jimmy Spencer in PSA’s, since he is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch. But it also referred to NASCAR’s "nonstop" reminders of drinking: "Beer brand logos are omnipresent on NASCAR’s drivers’ uniforms, cars, infield equipment and kid-friendly promotional items," CSPI’s Alcohol Policies Project Director George Hacker wrote. Calling beer the "major drug problem" for young people,...