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The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment. John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort. "Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said....

CHICAGO — U.S. agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main source of a powerful painkiller that has killed at least 100 heroin users in eight states, the federal drug czar said Monday. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the painkiller,fentanyl, was mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it entered the United States.

DES MOINES, IA - Sen. Charles Grassley on Wednesday called for President Bush to fire the nation's drug czar, claiming more needs to be done to combat methamphetamine abuse. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy, has been focusing too much on curbing marijuana use, said Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley said he wrote Walters calling for more action on meth and the response he received was "basically, bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo." "I think the president ought to fire the drug czar," Grassley told reporters Wednesday during a conference call. "Marijuana obviously is a very big drug problem, particularly...

White House Drug Czar Says Medical Marijuana Is 'dying Out'By Audrey McAvoy Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 29, 2005 HONOLULU (AP) - The White House drug czar said Friday that medical marijuana is "dying out" after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe pot to ease pain. John Walters, the national drug policy director, said state legislative efforts to expand medical marijuana programs have stalled in the two months since the high court's ruling overrode laws in Hawaii and nine other states. "I think it's dying out," Walters told reporters...

Exasperated by pessimism about the "war on drugs," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says:

Drug Czar Favors Testing Teens If school boards institute random drug testing in the public schools, the use of illegal drugs among teens would be sharply reduced, said John Walters, the director of National Drug Control Policy. President Bush's drug czar has called for catching alcohol and drug abuse early in the teen population, particularly by instituting random drug testing. Random drug screening is an effective measure that local school boards should consider adopting, said John Walters, addressing the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors on Friday in Bal Harbour. "[Random drug testing in public high schools]...

SALEM, Ore. -- A measure on Oregon's Nov. 2 ballot to expand the medical use of marijuana is drawing fire from state district attorneys and the White House drug czar, who says it would turn the state into a "safe haven for drug trafficking."Measure 33 would make it easier for ailing people to obtain marijuana and allow them to possess more of it -- up to a pound at a time. It also requires that indigent patients be given free marijuana.But White House drug czar John Walters, echoing criticism by Oregon's district attorneys, calls Measure 33 a fraud on Oregon...

The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday against efforts by the Marijuana Policy Project to have federal drug czar John Walters investigated for not filing expense reports when campaigning in Nevada against a 2002 marijuana legalization plan. The high court issued a 1-paragraph order saying its intervention isn't warranted. The Marijuana Policy Project sought an order requiring Secretary of State Dean Heller to investigate Walters, adding that he could be subject to a fine up to $5,000 if he violated campaign laws. But Heller's office maintained that Walters didn't have to submit a report when he campaigned in Nevada, and a...

Drug Czar's Nevada Expense Report Sought Carson City -- A marijuana advocacy group has asked the state Supreme Court to order Secretary of State Dean Heller to require a federal official to provide expense information spent lobbying against a state pot initiative. The Washington, D.C.,-based Marijuana Policy Project said Heller is not requiring U.S. Drug Czar John Walters to file expense reports on his anti-marijuana efforts because of an erroneous opinion from the attorney general's office. The group sought campaign reporting from Walters in connection with a 2002 marijuana legalization effort in Nevada that failed at the ballot box. In...

John Walters Hello, I am John Walters, and I look forward to chatting about what is on your mind. Jason, from Springfield, MO writes: Sir: Can you report any significant progress at securing the northern and southern land borders against drug smuggling? Are large amounts of drugs still entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and if so, what can be done? John P. WaltersWe have had remarkable cooperation with Mexico during President Fox's administration. We are not only strengthening the security at our borders, but, more importantly, we are putting much greater enforcement pressure on the criminal organizations that...

Bush Policy To Target Prescription Drugs Tracking patients' use key part of new anti-drug effort WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national anti-drug strategy will for the first time target the use of pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for nonmedical purposes, a problem that has exploded in the last decade. A key part of the strategy being released Monday involves government efforts to help states develop monitoring systems to track a patient's use of prescription medicine. The monitoring programs flag cases that indicate a pattern of abuse, such as "doctor shopping," where a patient gets prescriptions for drugs from multiple physicians....

<p>WASHINGTON — America is achieving historic successes in the war on drugs, and some high-tech gadgets may be helping to turn the tide, John P. Walters (search), the nation's drug czar, said on Wednesday.</p> <p>"We've had use go down by 11 percent by teenagers over the last two years. We haven't seen that happen in 10 years — 400,000 less kids are using drugs in 2003 than in 2001," Walters told an audience attending a counter-drug technology exhibit in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Flanked by local politicians, law enforcement and drug treatment program officials at the federal courthouse, White House drug czar John P. Walters said Wednesday in Sacramento that the U.S. government must become a more effective part of local drug prevention and treatment programs. "If we stress prevention, if we can stop young people before they start," Walters said, "we can change the face of substance abuse problems in the country for generations to come."</p>

The nation's drug czar spent Tuesday touring a Reno drug treatment facility that's a model for others nationwide. John Walters is the Director of National Drug Control Policy. He visited the "Step Two" Lighthouse of the Sierra drug program. "Step Two" provides shelter, food and clothing to women recovering from drug problems. The program could receive more funding under President Bush's "Access to Recovery" treatment initiative. The federal plan would let abusers choose their treatment program. Walters commended Lighthouse staff, executives and clients. In his words, "For those who believe the drug problem just gets worse, it's time to look...

PHILADELPHIA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - At least half the groups designated as "foreign terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State Department raise money from international drug trafficking, a Bush administration official said on Thursday. White House drug czar John Walters, credited with a federal anti-drug publicity campaign linking drug use among American adolescents with the financing of terror groups, told a police group, "The American drug consumer is the single most important funder of terrorism in this hemisphere." He warned that secret channels used to ship narcotics into the United States could also transport biological or nuclear weapons. "It is a...

<p>The struggle against narco-trafficking has to be linked with the fight against terrorism, White House drug czar John P. Walters has said.</p> <p>"I believe that violence and terror are associated with drug trade," Mr. Walters said at a conference Thursday at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.</p>

White House Drug Czar Recommends Drug Testing in Schools Boston -- President Bush's drug czar told New England governors Wednesday that drug testing in schools would be an effective way to combat what is a growing problem of drug use among young people, especially in the Northeast. The region's six governors and John Walters, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, met at Faneuil Hall in an anti-drug summit focusing on New England's heroin epidemic. New England has more people ages 12 and over dependent on illegal drugs than any other region of the nation, according to Walters. Heroin...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) today responded to White House Drug Czar John Walters' call for "a national debate" on marijuana policy by offering to debate the drug czar on national television as soon as possible. Walters, who has repeatedly avoided debates or joint appearances with representatives of MPP and other drug policy reform organizations, issued the challenge during a September 10 press conference in Seattle. Walters used the press conference to denounce Initiative 75, a measure to make arrest and prosecution of personal marijuana possession the lowest priority for Seattle police and prosecutors. As reported in...

EVERY SO OFTEN, you can see a new rip, however small, in the American cultural fabric, a subtle sign that what was once presumed to be a settled issue is now up for grabs. Last week there was a moment at a drug treatment center in Rainier Valley that was one of those times. That’s when John Walters, the White House “drug czar,” came to Seattle backed by a platoon of bodyguards—and unwittingly admitted that the feds’ 60 Years War on marijuana didn’t have the grip on the American public that it once did. Walters’ announced purpose in coming to...

<p>PORTLAND -- Drug czar John Walters said Thursday that medical marijuana is being used as a political ploy to support efforts to legalize marijuana in a state where it already poses the most serious drug abuse problem for teenagers.</p> <p>Walters said about 25 percent of teens in the metro area who report drug abuse problems say they are dependent on marijuana, compared with 15 percent who report alcohol abuse.</p>