White House Drug Policy: An Ounce of Prevention

For the coming fiscal year starting in October, the administration has proposed a 13 percent increase in spending on prevention programs and a nearly 4 percent increase for treating addiction.

In the criminal justice system alone, successfully treating only 10 percent of the inmates and arrestees who need it would pay for itself indirectly in reduced crime and other costs in a year – and after that provide net annual benefits of $10 billion in less crime, more productivity, and increased tax revenues.

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But has the administration gone far enough? Overall, it still spends about two-thirds of its budget on enforcement and one third on prevention and treatment.

The government can, and should, continue its war on drugs, and keep tipping the balance toward greater prevention and treatment (young people who make it to age 21 without developing an addiction are unlikely to develop one after that age).

WASHINGTON — Four decades after President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs, the White House yesterday announced a shift in national drug policy that would treat illegal drug use more as a public health issue and plunge more resources into prevention and treatment.

The new drug control strategy boosts community-based antidrug programs, encourages health care providers to screen for drug problems before addiction sets in, and expands treatment beyond specialty centers to mainstream health care facilities.

President Obama called the plan a “balanced approach to confronting the complex challenge of drug use and its consequences.’’

His drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, was more blunt.

“Calling it a war really limits your resources,’’ Kerlikowske said. “Looking at this as both a public safety problem and a public health problem seems to make a lot more sense.’’