SOME FIND HOPE FOR A SHIFT IN DRUG POLICY

SEATTLE -- Washington State law prohibits the possession of marijuana
except for certain medical purposes. Hempfest is not one of them. Yet
each summer when the event draws thousands to the Seattle waterfront
to call for decriminalizing marijuana, participants light up in clear
view of police officers. And they rarely get arrested.

"Police officers patrolling are courteous and respectful," said
Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Washington.

One reason for the officers' approach, said Ms. Holcomb and others
who follow law enforcement in Seattle, is the leadership of R. Gil
Kerlikowske, the chief of the Seattle Police Department and,
officials in the Obama administration say, the president's choice to
become the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, known
as the drug czar.

The anticipated selection of Chief Kerlikowske has given hope to
those who want national drug policy to shift from an emphasis on
arrest and prosecution to methods more like those employed in
Seattle: intervention, treatment and a reduction of problems drug use
can cause, a tactic known as harm reduction. Chief Kerlikowske is not
necessarily regarded as having forcefully led those efforts, but he
has not gotten in the way of them.

"What gives me optimism," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of
the Drug Policy Alliance, "is not so much him per se as the fact that
he's been the police chief of Seattle. And Seattle, King County and
Washington State have really been at the forefront of harm reduction
and other drug policy reform."

The White House has yet to announce the nomination of Chief
Kerlikowske, and a spokesman for the Seattle police said the chief
would not discuss the matter. His appointment would require Senate
confirmation.

Chief Kerlikowske, 59, became police chief in Seattle in 2000, after
serving as a deputy director for community policing at the Justice
Department in the Clinton administration. While there he worked with
Eric H. Holder Jr., then a deputy attorney general and now the head
of the department.

Before going to the Justice Department, Chief Kerlikowske was the
police chief in Buffalo and in Fort Myers and Port St. Lucie in
Florida. Under John P. Walters, the drug czar during most of the
administration of President George W. Bush, the drug office focused
on tough enforcement of drug laws, including emphases on marijuana
and drug use among youths. The agency pointed to reductions in the
use of certain kinds of drugs, but it was criticized by some local
law enforcement officials who said its priorities did not reflect
local concerns, from the rise of methamphetamine to the fight against
drug smuggling at the Mexican border.

"The difference is I'll be able to call Washington and get ahold of
Gil and he'll answer the phone," said William Lansdowne, the police
chief in San Diego and a member of the board of the Major Cities
Chiefs Association. Chief Kerlikowske is the president of the
association. "He listens. He's very open to new ideas. He'll build
cooperation."

Chief Lansdowne added, "He'll take a look at prevention as much as
enforcement."

But Chief Kerlikowske also has critics.

Norm Stamper, whom Chief Kerlikowske succeeded in Seattle, said he
was a "blank slate" on drug policy. Mr. Stamper, who left office not
long after the riots that broke out during a 1999 meeting of the
World Trade Organization in Seattle, supports legalizing marijuana
and spoke at Hempfest after leaving the chief's job. He said Chief
Kerlikowske had not been a vocal supporter of some of the city's drug
policies focused on treatment, like a needle exchange program or a
2003 city ballot initiative, overwhelmingly approved by voters, that
said enforcing the law against marijuana possession by adults should
be the department's lowest priority.

"The question is, if he were in a much more conservative community,
would he attempt to turn that around?" Mr. Stamper said.

Others said that Mr. Kerlikowske's role as a police chief put him in
a delicate political position because he would not want to be accused
of being soft on crime. They note that he did not actively oppose the
2003 initiative and that he instructed his staff to comply with it
once it passed. They say that Seattle police officers in recent years
have kept their distance from the sites of needle exchanges.

Drug arrests are down in the city and overall crime is at a 40-year
low, though concerns have increased recently over gang violence.

Chief Kerlikowske has faced plenty of criticism during his time in
Seattle. In 2001, a study found that more than half of adults
arrested for drug crimes in the city were black, though less than 10
percent of the population was black. The chief vowed to address the
disparity, and it has decreased.

In 2002, he received a vote of no confidence from the local police
union. The year before, officers had been frustrated by his handling
of a Mardi Gras riot in which one person died and dozens were
injured. Some officers said they were prevented from intervening soon enough.

In 2007, a special commission found that the department had been too
lenient in disciplining officers in certain situations.

In 2004, the chief's duty weapon, a 9mm Glock pistol, was stolen from
his unmarked police car while he and his wife shopped downtown on the
day after Christmas. A police spokesman said later that the chief had
accidentally left his car unlocked but that he had not violated
department policy by leaving his gun in his car.