Contact: Darby
Beck
For Immediate Release:
darby.beck@leap.cc
February 10,
2015
415.823.5496
MICHAEL
BOTTICELLI CONFIRMED AS DRUG CZAR
Recovered
Alcoholic Takes Top Spot at ONDCP
Washington D.C. –
President Obama’s nominee for director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), acting director Michael Botticelli, was confirmed
by the Senate 92-0 yesterday, granting him one of the nation’s highest
drug-control offices. A recovered alcoholic with extensive career experience in
public health, the new “drug czar,” as he is informally known, has potential to
take more of a public health approach than did his predecessors, including
former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske, the most recent officeholder, who was confirmed as Commissioner of US
Customs and Border Protection last March. Botticelli has recently stated that
Congress shouldn’t interfere with the will of
D.C. voters to legalize marijuana, despite the ONDCP’s official stance on
legalization. Last week, he was quoted in a conference call saying that the
ONDCP will bar federal funding from drug
courts that prevent access to
medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction.
“Appointing someone
who personally understands addiction provides hope that the government is taking
a stronger public health approach to drug policy,” said Maj.
Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director
of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Botticelli
understands that it doesn’t make sense to treat drug
users as criminals, because
imprisonment has never proven to be effective at reducing
abuse.”
Botticelli was
arrested for drunk driving in 1988, and worked toward sobriety thereafter. He
then dedicated his career to helping others recover. Botticelli joined the
Massachusetts Department of Heath, and eventually served as director of substance abuse services from 2003 to 2012.
As director, he oversaw a program in Quincy that gave police access to naloxone,
a drug that saves lives by safely reversing opiate overdoses. His career is
celebrated as one that prioritizes public health and safety for those who battle
addiction, by instituting humane, effective and compassionate policies and
programs.
LEAP
is a nonprofit of criminal justice professionals who know the war on drugs has
created a public safety nightmare of increased gang violence, police
militarization and the fueling of dangerous underground markets.
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