Drug Czar to speak at Betty Ford Center

Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will give a speech on Monday at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.

Kerlikowske will speak about drug addiction “as a chronic disease of the brain instead of a moral failure,” and will outline the importance of national, state and local efforts to “lift the stigma associated with substance use disorders,” said his spokeswoman, Allison Putala.

Kerlikowske will ask people to “build upon the former first lady’s legacy in supporting people recovering from addiction,” Putala said, referring to the addiction treatment center’s founder, who died last July 8.

Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, will call for review of laws and regulations that hamper recovery, and posit that “America cannot arrest its way out of drug problems,” Putala said.

Kerlikowske will be welcomed by Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse.

The congresswoman hopes his visit to the Coachella Valley “makes more people aware of the dangers of prescription drug abuse,” her spokesman, Ken Johnson, told City News Service.

Kerlikowske has testified at two of Bono Mack’s congressional hearings on the subject, Johnson said.

Kerlikowske was appointed to his Obama administration cabinet post as
the country’s”drug czar” in 2009.