# Why do they call him a "drug Czar?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978 "2005-03-30T18:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Merl\_Minnozza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@Merl\_Minnozza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merl_Minnozza)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/1 "2005-03-30T18:17:00Z")
Whenever they have someone in charge of drug enforcement in the government, they always call him a “drug Czar.” Why? The title Czar basically means king, emperor, lord, so we’re basically calling the guy a drug lord. When I hear “drug Czar” I think of someone sitting on a throne in a lavish palace surrounded by bales of cocaine and armed guards, not some governmental _anti-drug_ official. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/2 "2005-03-30T18:33:59Z")
It all started with the energy czar in 1973, and ever since whenever the executive branch appoints someone to oversee government activity in a particular realm they inevitably become known as the “x” czar. [Here’s](http://blogs.csmonitor.com/verbal_energy/2004/08/index.html#a0001977696) a column from the Christian Science Monitor regarding the word’s usage. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/3 "2005-03-30T19:21:12Z")
For the record, the formal title of the U.S. “drug czar” is Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/4 "2005-03-30T19:23:51Z")
So drug czars are the opposite of drug lords and drug kingpins. A drug kingpin is a big producer or whosesaler, a drug lord is a distributor, and a pusher is a retailer. And a drug czar is a bureaucrat. Kinda takes the glamour out of the descriptions. (Do I have the kingpin and lord descriptions correctly, or reversed?) ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/5 "2005-03-30T20:09:42Z")
[nitpick] Keys of coke, not bales. [/nitpick] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/6 "2005-03-30T22:15:33Z")
Kilos. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/7 "2005-03-30T22:21:42Z")
Check out the Doonesbury cartoons from 1973, when he satirized the first use of the word by picturing Bill Simon’s reign as energy czar with truly imperial trappings. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-him-a-drug-czar/296978/8 "2005-03-31T00:16:55Z")
> [@Merl Minnozza](#): > > Whenever they have someone in charge of drug enforcement in the government, they always call him a “drug Czar.” Why? We discussed this briefly last year in [thread=269273]this thread.[/thread].