White House Releases New National Drug Strategy

The official press statement.


The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
May 11, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama released the Administration’s inaugural National Drug Control Strategy, which establishes five-year goals for reducing drug use and its consequences through a balanced policy of prevention, treatment, enforcement, and international cooperation.   The Strategy was developed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) with input from a variety of Federal, State, and local partners.

“This Strategy calls for a balanced approach to confronting the complex challenge of drug use and its consequences,” said President Obama. “By boosting community-based prevention, expanding treatment, strengthening law enforcement, and working collaboratively with our global partners, we will reduce drug use and the great damage it causes in our communities.  I am confident that when we take the steps outlined in this Strategy, we will make our country stronger and our people healthier and safer.”

The 2010 Strategy highlights a collaborative and balanced approach that emphasizes community-based prevention, integration of evidence-based treatment into the mainstream health care system, innovations in the criminal justice system to break the cycle of drug use and crime, and international partnerships to disrupt transnational drug trafficking organizations.  

During a nationwide listening tour soliciting input for the development of the Strategy, National Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske met with police and medical professionals, drug treatment providers and people in recovery, elected officials, corrections officials, academics, parents groups, faith leaders, and others.  Throughout the consultation process, significant themes emerged which connect the drug issue to major Administration policy priorities, including the economy, health care reform, youth development, public safety, military and veterans’ issues, and foreign relations.

“In following President Obama’s charge to seek a broad range of input in the Strategy, I gained a renewed appreciation of how deeply concerned Americans are about drug use,” said Director Kerlikowske. “It touches virtually all of us, whether we know a family member, a friend, or a colleague who suffers from addiction or is in recovery, a police officer working to protect the community, or a parent striving to keep a child drug free,” said Director Kerlikowske.

The 2010 Strategy establishes five-year goals to reduce drug use and its consequences, including:

• Reduce the rate of youth drug use by 15 percent;
• Decrease drug use among young adults by 10 percent;
• Reduce the number of chronic drug users by 15 percent;
• Reduce the incidence of drug-induced deaths by 15 percent; and
• Reduce the prevalence of drugged driving by 10 percent.

In addition, the Strategy outlines three significant drug challenges on which the Administration will specifically focus this year: prescription drug abuse, drugged driving, and preventing drug use.  Prescription drug abuse is the Nation’s fastest growing drug problem, driving significant increases of drug overdoses in recent years.   Drugged driving poses threats to public safety, as evidenced by a recent roadside survey which found that one in six drivers on weekend nights tested positive for the presence of drugs.  Preventing drug use before it starts is the best way to keep America’s youth drug-free.  In addressing each of these issues, the Strategy outlines a research-driven, evidence-based, and collaborative approach.

New Strategy elements also include a focus on making recovery possible for every American addicted to drugs through an expansion of community addiction centers and the development of new medications and evidence-based treatments for addiction.  Continued support for law enforcement, the criminal justice system, disrupting domestic drug traffic and production, working with partners to reduce global drug trade, and innovative community-based programs, such as drug courts, play a critical role in reducing American drug use and its effects.

For more information about the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy visit www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.

Photo Credit: http://www.whitehouse.gov

2008 Marijuana Sourcebook

Feds back gateway theory, say no to medical marijuana.



Attention marijuana users: The President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy thinks it has a pretty good idea of where you live. Last month, the office released its 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook (PDF), which includes the map to the right. (Dark green equals low use, yellow equals moderate use, and red stands for high use.)

Prime marijuana territory, according to the estimates, includes Northern California, upstate New York and New England, Alaska, Northern Florida, Northern Arizona, and Western Montana. Areas showing little interest in pot include Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah.

The Marijuana Sourcebook also features the controversial gateway hypothesis: “For younger users, the risk of marijuana abuse or dependency exceeds that for alcohol or tobacco. Recent research supports the ‘gateway’ dimension of marijuana — that its use creates greater risk of abuse or dependency on other drugs, such as heroin and cocaine.”

Many addiction researchers consider the gateway hypothesis to be outmoded at best. In a 2006 article in the America Journal of Psychiatry, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School could find no evidence that teenage marijuana use is predictive of drug and alcohol abuse in later life. According to Ralph E. Tarter, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and lead author of the study, “the reverse pattern is just as accurate for predicting who might be at risk for developing a drug dependence disorder.”

The Sourcebook also concludes that “smoked marijuana is not medicine,” and reminds readers that the FDA has not approved the use of cannabis for anything, at any time. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has always held that the medical marijuana movement is nothing but a front for increased drug trafficking. The report puts the case in terms nobody is likely to misconstrue: “The FDA, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes.”

Even our friendly neighbors to the North come in for a bashing. “Canada is a consumer as well as a producer of marijuana,” the Sourcebook says, claiming that Canadian use has doubled since 1994.

In addition, under the heading, “Marijuana Growers Present Environmental Hazards,” the Sourcebook estimates that one marijuana garden can generate “up to 53 30-gallon garbage bags of trash.”