Saturday, May 15, 2010
Forty years and $1 trillion later, the United States is at a crossroads in its war on drugs. Many critics have long complained that treating the drug problem first and foremost as a law enforcement issue has been a mistake, and the Obama administration seems to agree.
“In the grand scheme, it has not been successful,” U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske told the Associated Press. “Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified.”
President Barack Obama intends to produce a new national policy that will treat drug use more as a public health issue and focus on prevention and treatment.
The change, however, will not mean an end to billion-dollar budgets to help law enforcement pursue those in the drug trade. In fact, the Obama administration has upped annual spending in this area, to $10 billion (out of a $15.5 billion drug-control budget).
While supporters of the longstanding war-on-drugs strategy point to successes, such as a decline in cocaine use, other statistics show marijuana use and prescription drug abuse are climbing. Even increases in drug seizures are counterbalanced by the fact that drug availability is up.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
US Drug War Has Met None of Its Goals (by Martha Mendoza, Associated Press)
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