Huff Post
By Ethan Nadelmann
During his 2008 campaign and upon taking office, President Obama said he would shift the federal government’s drug control resources from a criminalization-centered approach to one based on public health. His drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, even announced in 2009 that he would end the war on drugs: “Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he said. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”