White House Releases National Plan To Combat Drug Use in America

John P. Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), recently released President Bush's 2007 National Drug Control Strategy. The administration's new strategy builds on recent declines in drug use in the United States and outlines a balanced strategy against illegal drugs, including support for programs that stop drug use before it starts, provide treatment for drug users, and disrupt the market for illegal drugs. The release of the 2007 National Drug Control Strategy follows the release of the president's drug control budget, which calls for $12.9 billion to support prevention, treatment, and supply reduction efforts.

According to the Monitoring the Future Study—the largest survey on teen drug use in the United States—there has been a 23 percent reduction in the number of young people using drugs since 2001. This includes a 25 percent reduction in the number of teens using marijuana and a 41 percent decline in methamphetamine use among youth since 2001. However, as overall drug use has declined in America, prescription drug abuse, particularly among teens, remains troubling. Prescription drug abuse ranks second only to marijuana as the nation's largest illegal drug problem, with nearly 6.4 million people reporting the nonmedical use of prescription drugs. In order to reverse the alarming trend in prescription drug abuse and to help achieve the administration's goal of reducing prescription drug abuse by 15 percent in three years, the strategy urges states to develop and implement Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). Currently, 17 states do not have any form of PDMP in place.

Director Walters said, “President Bush understands that illegal drugs rob our citizens of their dignity, health, and freedom. We owe a debt of gratitude to parents, community leaders, and law enforcement officers who have helped make our national drug problem smaller. Thanks to their work, there are now 840,000 fewer young people using drugs in the United States today, compared to five years ago.” The new strategy outlines support for effective drug control programs. Some of the highlights appear below.

• ONDCP's award-winning National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which   helps teens resist peer pressure through a focused paid advertising campaign.
• Nonpunitive random student drug testing programs, which help create a culture of disapproval towards drugs. Moreover, drug testing programs give young people a credible way to resist peer pressure and identify those who have initiated drug use so parents and counselors can intervene early.
• Local antidrug coalitions through the Drug-Free Communities program, which help bring together different sectors of communities to prevent drug use among young people before it starts.
• The Access to Recovery drug treatment program, which expands the availability of drug treatment and helps faith-based drug treatment centers provide help to drug-addicted Americans.
• Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), which engages the health care community in diagnosing and intervening in substance abuse problems before they progress to dependence and addiction.
• Drug courts, which divert low-level, nonviolent drug offenders away from jail and into substance abuse treatment programs.
• Support for stopping drugs at the source in Afghanistan and the Andean region. The strategy supports border control, illicit crop reduction, and alternative crop development in source zone countries.

A copy of the 2007 National Drug Control Strategy may be found at www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.