WASHINGTON—President Barrack Obama unveiled his 2010 National Drug Control Strategy on May 11. In a Department of Education outline released to Congress, the administration endorsed what it claims is a balance of prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. The Strategy calls for a 15 percent reduction in the rate of youth drug use over five years and similar reductions in chronic drug use and drug-related consequences, such as drug deaths and drugged driving.
Below is a summary of the Strategy’s key objectives:
- Strengthen efforts to prevent drug use
- Seek early intervention opportunities in healthcare, specifically by primary care providers, and through screening and prescription drug monitoring programs
- Integrate treatment for substance use disorders into healthcare, and expand support for recovery, specifically expanding addiction treatment in community health centers and the Indian Health Service.
- Break the cycle of drug use, crime, delinquency and incarceration, specifically supporting law enforcement efforts to reduce drug availability, promoting alternatives to incarceration, and mandating treatment and court monitoring for chronic drug-using offenders.
- Disrupt domestic drug trafficking and production, specifically maximizing federal support for law enforcement drug task forces, assisting tribal authorities in combating drug trafficking, and interdicting the southbound flow of currency and weapons.
- Strengthen international partnerships, specifically conducting joint counterdrug law enforcement operations with international partners, promoting alternative livelihoods for coca and opium farmers, and targeting the illicit finances of drug-trafficking organizations.
- Improve information systems for analysis, assessment and local management, specifically focusing on enhancing current data systems and assessing the availability, price, and purity of illicit drugs on the street so that it is known when our programs have a measurable impact on drug markets
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