Obama Administration Accomplishments List
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- Accomplishment: Shifted focus of United States drug policy toward prevention and treatment (ref).
- What does it mean?
The new drug policy addressed the following issues:- Rising deaths due to prescription overdoses(ref);
- The need for increased spending on prevention(ref);
- Increased focus on early prevention(ref);
- Basing success on decrease in death, hard drug use, and childhood use, rather than just teenage marijuana use(ref);
- Providing training and assistance to tribal authorities on the United States and Canadian border(ref).
- Why does it matter?
With deaths from illegal and prescription drug overdoses rising(ref), the Obama administration made the decision to put a heavier emphasis on early discovery of substance abuse and preventing overprescription of pain killers, instead of measuring success by how many teenagers used marijuana(ref).
Early education is a key focus, as brain development research shows a decreased likelihood of forming an addition if one has not already been established by age 21(ref). Another method aimed at prevention is the increased cooperation between the United States, Canadian, and tribal authorities(ref), which should reduce the supply of drugs crossing the borders.
No method of prevention can work without funding, and under the new drug policy, the drug control office budget received a "13 percent increase in spending on alcohol and drug prevention programs, along with a 3.7 percent increase for addiction treatment"(ref). While I hope to see these numbers continue to grow, they show a new step in the right direction.
In addition to improving methods and funding for prevention and treatment of drug abuse, the new policy takes steps toward removing some of the defunct, ineffective former policies, such as the ban on federal funds for HIV preventing needle-sharing programs (see my blog post, Combating HIV and AIDS), arresting medicinal marijuana users under federal law even though their states approved use(ref), and reducing the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing(ref). Through the Fair Sentencing Act, Obama addressed the racism behind the harder sentencing for crack cocaine than powder cocaine, and called for Congress to "eliminate the disparity in sentencing"(ref1)(ref2).
"It changes the whole discussion about ending the war on drugs and recognizes that we have a responsibility to reduce our own drug use in this country."- Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy(ref).Obama's drug policy displays a thought process centered around cooperation -- from cooperating with our own citizens by focusing on wellness instead of punishment, to using ideas demonstrated to have improved the situation in Mexico, and sharing with our neighbors programs which have shown success here(ref).
