Michael Botticelli, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, prepares to testify before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations. Sylvan Lane/Medill News Service.
WASHINGTON – A top official in the national drug czar’s office insisted Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s comments about the safety of marijuana usage do not reflect the White House policy on the legalization of the drug.
Michael Botticelli, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the House Subcommittee on Government Operations that the White House remains opposed to marijuana legalization, and that smoking it still carries health risks regardless of how it compares with other drugs.
Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Calif., called the Obama administration’s policy on marijuana legalization “schizophrenic.”
In an interview with The New Yorker last week, Obama said he believed marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol, but insisted it was a waste of time and potentially dangerous. The president added in a later interview with CNN that marijuana should still be treated as a public health concern, but that the penalties for its usage were inordinately heavy and often applied inconsistently to offenders of different races. That said, he ceded the job of reclassifying marijuana to Congress.
The White House officially opposes legalization, saying it would “increase the availability and use of illicit drugs, and pose significant health and safety risks to all Americans.”
While the administration has been laissez faire with Colorado and Washington’s legalization of marijuana for recreational use, it promised to intervene if regulated marijuana began to cross state lines or fall into the hands of minors.
Despite repeated questioning from Democratic congressmen, Botticelli refused to directly say whether marijuana was more dangerous than other drugs, claiming that doing so minimizes the health risks of any substance, regardless of how addictive or toxic it could be. He said his office already had to battle fewer teenagers viewing marijuana as dangerous.
“When people see things as less risky,” Botticelli said, “they’re more likely to do it. One of the reasons why we had success with tobacco was because kids see it as risky. And unfortunately, the vast majority of kids no longer see marijuana as risky.”
When people something that is legal–that is often prescribed by a physician–people see it as benign and not harmful. It’s not a surprise for me to see that change in public perception,” he said
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who introduced a medical marijuana bill into the House last year, claimed that Botticelli’s unwillingness to answer such questions undermined his department’s efforts to curb youth drug use.
“I think that your equivocation right there, being unable to answer something clearly and definitively when there is unquestionable evidence to the contrary is why young people don’t believe the propaganda,” Blumenauer said.
“If the deputy director of the National Office of Drug Policy can’t answer this question, then how can you expect high schoolers to take you seriously?”
While Botticelli’s testimony set off a storm of debate on the dangers of marijuana, the opening comments almost exclusively focused on the criminal justice issues of marijuana possession. Several recent studies have shown that while whites and minorities use marijuana at comparable rates, minorities are four times more likely to be arrested and prosecuted on average.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., whose district is almost 60 percent black, said he was “deeply concerned” about the racial disparities.
“Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot; poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American and Latino kids are more likely to be poor, and less likely to get the resources and support.”
Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder told U.S. prosecutors to circumvent mandatory minimum sentences in drug cases, and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of significantly reducing the sentences last month.
