A Competent "Drug Czar" for a Change?

Recent media speculation has suggested that President-Elect Obama will choose Congressman James Ramstad of Minnesota for the position of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. I share the respect many in the field of substance abuse treatment have for Rep. Ramstad for his steady support for expanding treatment access and improving public awareness of addiction as a disease. I also see much to be gained by, for the first time, having an ONDCP Director who is a recovered addict. Nevertheless, I have serious reservations about his fitness to be the nation’s “drug czar”.

He has consistently opposed some of the most effective policies available to us for minimizing the societal and individual costs of addictions. In 1998, he supported a permanent federal funding ban on syringe exchange. In 2000 he voted to prohibit the District of Columbia from spending its own locally raised funds on syringe exchange programs, and in 2007 voted to keep the ban. He has persisted in his obstructionism despite decades of research showing that syringe exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS without increasing drug use.

He voted 5 times against congressional efforts to stop the arrest of HIV/AIDS, cancer and other patients who use medical marijuana to ease their suffering in states where such use is legal. As in the matter of syringe exchanges he put ideology ahead of humane concerns and scientific evidence in his opposition to medical marijuana.

Rep. Ramstad’s rejection of evidence-based interventions and choice for ideology over science is even more clearly demonstrated by his long-standing support for DARE, despite the multiple studies showing the DARE program to be at best ineffective and at worst actually increasing drug abuse among students exposed to the program.

Perhaps even worse is his support of Teen Challenge, an organization that declares, “Addiction is a sin, not a disease”. This is a group which believes that recruiting people into the Assemblies of God ministry will cure their addiction and which outraged many Jewish Americans with their references to “completing” Jews by converting them to Christianity. In this past session of Congress, Rep. Ramstad was the sole sponsor of an earmark providing $235,000 to Minnesota Teen Challenge, funding for a program notorious for its use of humiliation and other abusive tactics that have been repeatedly shown to be not merely ineffective but counterproductive.

As a professional with over thirty years experience in drug abuse treatment, prevention and research and as chair of NAPHP’s Council on Illicit Drugs, I am deeply disturbed by the thought of the nation being saddled with yet another ideology-driven ONDCP director. What we need is a director with a public health background, committed to supporting evidenced-based interventions, and open to systematic drug policy reform.

There are numerous well-qualified candidates for “drug czar” who are worthy of President-Elect Obama’s consideration. Persons of the high level of competence that he has sought for other key positions. I would urge that he consider David Lewis of Brown University, who would certainly be the best qualified “drug czar” since Nixon appointed Jerome Jaffe as the first. There are other outstanding possibilities such as Ernest Drucker (Montefiore Medical Center), Ethan Nadelmann (Drug Policy Alliance), Robert G. Newman (Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital), Thomas Nicholson (Western Kentucky University), and Marsha Rosenbaum (Safety First Project).

David F. Duncan, DrPH

Chair, Council on Illicit Drugs

National Association for Public Health Policy

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