WATCH: The Out Man Who's Out to Change the 'War on Drugs'

In a revealing interview with CBS News anchor Scott Pelley, the nation's top official in charge of fighting the war on drugs focused his arsenal not on cartels and abusers as much as on attitudes and language.

Michal Botticelli was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February, and as the out director of National Drug Policy closes in on his first year on the job, he told 60 Minutes, don't call him "the drug czar."

"I think it connotes this old 'war on drugs' focus to the work that we do. It portrays that we are clinging to kind of failed policies and failed practices in the past."

Pelley asked Botticelli if he meant to say the "war and drugs" approach of the past four decades was all wrong.

"It has been all wrong," he said.

Although Botticelli's official White House biography says he was born in Upstate New York, that he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Siena College and a Master of Education degree from St. Lawrence University, it doesn't say he is gay. It's hardly a secret, as South Florida Gay News and others have reported on his sexuality earlier this year. But 60 Minutes showed him at home with his husband of more than 20 years, David Wells.

"At what point were you comfortable talking about being a gay man?" asked Scott Pelley.

After a thoughtful pause, Botticelli told him it was before he was comfortable talking about being an alcoholic.

"You know, even kind of feeling that moment of hesitation about saying that I'm in recovery and not about being a gay man shows to me that we still have more work to do to really de-stigmatize addiction."

In their interview, Botticelli admits he's "not a fan" of the legalization of marijuana and talked at length about changing the language of addiction, in much the same way the marriage equality movement changed attitudes towards gays and lesbians by focusing on love.

For Botticelli, "disorder" is the word that he wants to replace "addiction" to lift the stigma.

"We've learned addiction is a brain disease," Botticelli told CBS. "This is not a moral failing. This is not about bad people who are choosing to continue to use drugs because they lack willpower. You know, we don't expect people with cancer just to stop having cancer."

To Pelley's question about whether heroin addicts bring this upon themselves, Botticelli said, "the hallmark of addiction is that it changes your brain chemistry. It actually affects that part of your brain that's responsible for judgment."

Botticelli is campaigning for better education of Americans as well as the medical community at large.

"I often say that substance use is one of the last diseases where we'd let people reach their most acute phase of this disorder before we offer them intervention. You've heard the phrase 'hitting bottom.' Well, we don't say that with any other disorder. So the medical community has a key role to play in terms of doing a better job of identifying people in the early stages of their disease, in doing a better job at treating people who have this disorder."

Watch the report from CBS News 60 Minutes below, and see more of Scott Pelley's interview with Michael Botticelli by scrolling down.