Drug Czar
Encyclopedia
Drug Czar is an informal
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...

 name for the person who directs drug-control policies in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, following the U.S. use of the 'czar' term. The 'drug czar' title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International which reported that “Senators... voted 62–34 to establish a ‘drug czar’ who would have overall responsibility for U.S. drug policy.” Since then, several ad hoc executive positions in both the United States and United Kingdom have been established which have been subsequently referred to in this manner.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy with the Washington Post, Gil Kerlikowske said the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues.

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country." (See War
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

, Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...

)

Nixon and Ford administrations

  • Jerome Jaffe
    Jerome Jaffe
    Dr. Jerome H. Jaffe was the first Drug Czar under the administration of President of the United States Richard Nixon.- Career :Under the administration of President Nixon, Jerome Jaffe was the chief of the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention , an executive agency created by President...

    , head of the Special Office for Drug Abuse Prevention
  • Myles Ambrose
    Myles Ambrose
    Myles Joseph Ambrose was the Commissioner of Customs under president Richard M. Nixon and in January 1972 was appointed director of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement , a drug enforcement agency tasked primarily with the US federal government aiding local drug enforcement...

    , head of the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement
    Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement
    The Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement was a Justice Department agency that Richard Nixon established in January 1972, headed by Myles Ambrose. The office was chiefly a tool for the federal government to assist local government in enforcing drug laws and oblige drug addicts to undergo...

     (ODALE)
  • Dr. Robert DuPont
    Robert DuPont
    Robert L. DuPont, M.D. is a national leader in drug abuse prevention, policy and treatment. He was the first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse from 1973 to 1978 and was the second White House Drug Czar from 1973 to 1977 under former Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1978...

    , Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
    National Institute on Drug Abuse
    The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a United States federal-government research institute whose mission is to "lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction."-History:...

     and head of the Narcotics Treatment Administration

Carter administration

  • Peter Bourne
    Peter Bourne
    Peter Bourne is a physician, anthropologist, biographer, author and international civil servant with experience in several senior government positions. He is currently chairman of the board of the American Association for World Health, and Professor and Vice Chancellor Emeritus at St...

    , Director of the National Drug Control Policy
  • Mathea Falco
    Mathea Falco
    Mathea Falco is a leading expert in drug abuse prevention and treatment who served as the first U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs during the Carter Administration...

    , Assistant Secretary of State
    United States Secretary of State
    The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

     for International Narcotics

Reagan administration

  • Carlton Turner PhD, ScD, Director of the Drug Abuse Policy Office
  • D. Ian McDonald, MD. Deputy Assistant to the President, Drug Abuse Policy Office

United Kingdom

In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Keith Hellawell
Keith Hellawell
Keith Hellawell is a former British police officer, who was the New Labour government's drugs advisor and so called "drugs czar" from January 1998. He resigned from his position in July 2002 over the government's reclassification of cannabis from a Class B to a Class C substance...

, former Drugs Advisor to the Labour government of Tony Blair, has been referred to as a drug czar.

External links

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