Prevention as Well as Treatment are the Target of Obama's Drug Strategy

A new anti-drug strategy has been released by US President Barack Obama that puts greater emphasis on prevention and treatment in seeking to curb drug use. The plan calls for a 15 percent reduction in the rate of drug use by youths and chronic drug users as well as in drug induced deaths by 2015.

It aims to cut drug use by young adults, and the incidence of drugged driving, by 10 percent, according to a summary of the strategy released by the White House.

Obama said the new strategy would take a more balanced approach to a persistent, unsolved social problem that the United States has dealt with in the past through a law enforcement-heavy "war on drugs".

"By boosting community-based prevention, expanding treatment, strengthening law enforcement, and working collaboratively with our global partners, we will reduce drug use and the great damage it causes in our communities," Obama said in a statement.

"I am confident that when we take the steps outlined in this strategy, we will make our country stronger and our people healthier and safer," he said.

The new strategy takes special aim at prescription drug use, drugged driving and preventing drug use, the White House said.

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It said prescription drug use was the country's fastest growing drug problem.

Drug addiction would be targeted through expansion of community addiction centres and development of new medications and evidence-based treatment of addiction, it said.

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Law enforcement efforts to curb drugs would continue to play "a critical role in reducing drug use and its effects," the White House said.

Source-AFP
RAS