Earlier this month, President Barack Obama nominated the nation’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske to be the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Vice President Joe Biden presented Gil Kerlikowske with the position during a press conference in the White House on March 11th. Gil Kerlikowske has been the Chief of Police for Seattle for 9 years where he has been credited publicly with bringing down crime rates to record lows.  He is the current president of the Major City Chiefs Association, which is composed of the 56 of the largest enforcement agencies in the United States.  He also served as Police Commissioner for the City of Buffalo, where he served until 1998, when he left to become the Deputy Director of the COPS program for the Department of Justice.

During the press conference, Joe Biden expressed the importance of the positions of drug czar and Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stating that before the two positions were created years ago, when the United States had 32 agencies dealing with the nation’s drug problems and practically no coordination between them. Biden stated, “I believe that we needed a drug czar, someone who could lead at a White House level, coordinating all our nation’s drug policy, and I still believe that today.”

Biden went on to say, “Substance abuse is one of our nation’s most pervasive problems, as all of you in this room know. An addiction is a disease - as Pat Moynihan used to say, disease of the brain, that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of age, gender, socioeconomic standing, or status, race, or creed. And as all of you know, it wreaks havoc on all of our communities: urban, rural and suburban.”

Upon accepting the position, Gil Kerlikowske addressed reporters saying, “The President and the Vice President have set a new course, and I’m looking forward to working with the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services and all of the agencies that are involved in drug policy on implementing this new course.”

Kerlikowske went on to say, “Already this administration has expanded commitments to critical programs, ones that we’ve seen such as drug courts, better treatment, prisoner and reentry programs, border security, and counter narcotics initiatives, both domestically and internationally. This is a real commitment to strengthening the tools we have to reduce trafficking, illegal drug manufacturing, and drug-related crime and violence. There is much work to be done. I’m looking forward to getting to work.”