FW: White House nominates Botticelli, a recovering alcoholic, to be drug czar

The Washington Post
August 28, 2014

White House nominates Botticelli, a recovering alcoholic, to be drug czar

By Katie Zezima

The White House has nominated Michael Botticelli to be director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Botticelli has held the position on an acting basis since March.

Botticelli, 56, is a recovering alcoholic. He is now nominated to permanently head an office whose directors have included included physicians, law enforcement officials and a general.

Botticelli came to Washington in 2012 to be former drug czar Gil Kerlikowske's deputy. Prior to that Botticelli was the director of the Massachusetts bureau of substance abuse services.

Botticelli has been sober for a quarter century. His path to sobriety came after a series of events including a drunk driving accident where he woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed and a financial collapse that left him facing eviction.

Michael Botticelli visited Newbury Street in Boston, near the church where he first began attending AA meetings more than 20 years ago.
(Michele McDonald /The Washington Post)

Botticelli entered a 12-step program in 1988, months after his car accident, and has been sober ever since. He is now nominated to head an office that has shifted its approach to addiction toward treatment and away from incarceration. The approach dovetails with Botticelli's life.

Botticelli's biggest challenge comes as the nation is facing an epidemic of prescription-drug and heroin abuse. The number of fatal overdoses increased by 118 percent nationwide from 1999 to 2011, mostly driven by powerful prescription opioids and a recent shift that many users are making from prescription drugs to heroin, which can be cheaper and more accessible.

Botticelli travels the country, meeting with state and local officials and a group he calls "my peeps," people with substance abuse issues. He is trying to implement programs he spearheaded in Massachusetts, including helping people with addiction find jobs and housing and expanding access to a drug that can help reverse heroin overdoses.

"Today, I had the honor of being nominated by the President to be the Director of National Drug Control Policy. I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity to lead the national effort to reduce drug use and its consequences, and I know that I would not have gotten to this point without the hard work and support of my colleagues across the Administration, every member of the office and my family, particularly my husband, Dave."

----

Deputy Drug Czar Michael Botticelli Reluctantly Admits Marijuana Is Less Deadly Than Alcohol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rc8p7AwSaU
Published on Feb 4, 2014

The deputy director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy admitted Tuesday that marijuana was less deadly than alcohol, but insisted that pot was not a benign drug.

At a House Oversight Committee hearing, the drug czar's second-in-command, Michael Botticelli, received a stern questioning from Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) about the harms of marijuana in light of President Barack Obama recent comments on the subject.

"How many people die from marijuana overdoses every year?" Connolly asked.

"I don't know that I know. It is very rare," Botticelli replied.

"Very rare. Now just contrast that with prescription drugs, unintentional deaths from prescription drugs, one American dies every 19 minutes," Connolly said. "Nothing comparable to marijuana. Is that correct?"

Botticelli admitted that was true.

"Alcohol — hundreds of thousands of people die every year from alcohol related deaths: automobile [accidents], liver disease, esophageal cancer, blood poisoning," Connolly continued. "Is that incorrect?"

But Botticelli refused to answer. Guessing where the line of questioning was headed, he said the "totality of harm" associated with marijuana indicated it was a dangerous drug, even though it was not associated with deaths.

"I guess I'm sticking with the president — the head of your administration — who is making a different point," Connolly fired back.
"He is making a point that is empirically true. That isn't a normative statement, that marijuana is good or bad, but he was contrasting it with alcohol and empirically he is correct, is he not?"

Botticelli again tried to dodge the question, but Connolly interrupted him and told him to answer.

"Is it not a scientific fact that there is nothing comparable with marijuana?" Connolly asked. "And I'm not saying it is good or bad, but when we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly — even prescription drugs — are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn't that a scientific fact?
Or do you dispute that fact?"

"I don't dispute that fact," Botticelli said.


_______________________________________________
Dd-world mailing list
https://lists.tni.org/mailman/listinfo/dd-world