Abolish the Office of Drug Control Policy

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Dear Edi­tor,

Register's Editorial June 10, 2012
Reg­is­ter’s Edi­to­r­i­al June 10, 2012

Thank you for writ­ing the Register’s Edi­to­r­i­al today, “Right pick for ‘drug czar’?  That’s the wrong ques­tion.”

The Office of Drug Con­trol Pol­i­cy (ODCP) is a state agency with no pub­lic over­sight.  It has no admin­is­tra­tive process, so you can­not peti­tion the agency for an admin­is­tra­tive hear­ing.  The Office of Cit­i­zens’ Aide/Ombudsman has no juris­dic­tion over ODCP.

States Moving Forward on Marijuana
States Mov­ing For­ward on Mar­i­jua­na

ODCP rep­re­sents the inter­ests of sub­stance abuse treat­ment and law enforce­ment agen­cies.  Iowa would be much bet­ter served by split­ting those func­tions between the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health and the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Safe­ty, which have more exper­tise than either the cur­rent direc­tor (with a back­ground in com­mer­cial sales) or the assis­tant direc­tor (with a back­ground in radio broad­cast­ing).

Governor's Wife Says ODCP Worth Saving
Gov­er­nor’s Wife Says ODCP Worth Sav­ing

To make mat­ters worse, the agency active­ly lob­bied in 2011 and 2012 against the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health when the Iowa Board of Phar­ma­cy rec­om­mend­ed unan­i­mous­ly that mar­i­jua­na be reclas­si­fied as med­i­cine in Iowa.  ODCP’s mis­sion should be to pre­vent the unau­tho­rized use of med­i­cine, not decid­ing what med­i­cine should be.

Carl Olsen
130 E. Auro­ra Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50313–3654
515–288-5798 home phone
515–343-9933 cell phone
carl-olsen at mch­si dot com

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