Obama's New Budget Would Increase Spending for War on Drugs
WASHINGTON -- The Fiscal Year 2011 National Drug Control Budget proposed by the Obama Administration would devote significant new resources to the prevention and treatment of drug abuse, National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said today. These resources are complemented by an aggressive effort to enhance domestic law enforcement, interdiction, and supply control programs.
Funding for prevention measures under the President's proposal would increase 13.4 percent over the level of funding for the current fiscal year, and expenditures for treatment programs would be increased by 3.7 percent, Kerlikowske said.
Those expenditures are included in the FY 2011 request, for a total of $15.5 billion to reduce drug use and its consequences. The funds would go to the 13 Federal agencies and departments responsible for the broad continuum of drug control – from prevention and treatment to enforcement, interdiction, and international efforts. The total proposed spending in the FY 2011 National Drug Control Budget represents a 3.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
"The new budget proposal demonstrates the Obama Administration's commitment to a balanced and comprehensive drug strategy," said Director Kerlikowske. "In a time of tight budgets and fiscal restraint, these new investments are targeted at reducing Americans' drug use and the substantial costs associated with the health and social consequences of drug abuse."
In developing the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, which will be released soon, Director Kerlikowske led an unprecedented consultation process, engaging hundreds of community leaders, State and local officials, and Members of Congress over the last eight months, soliciting evidence-based solutions to reduce drug abuse and its consequences, and integrating their input, expertise, and on-the-ground-experience into the Strategy.
The new budget proposal would devote more than $150 million in new funding for creating a national, community-based prevention system to protect adolescents; training and engaging primary health care to intervene in emerging cases of drug abuse; expanding and improving specialty addiction care; developing safe and efficient ways to manage drug-related offenders; and creating a permanent drug monitoring system. Additionally, the Obama Administration's National Drug Control Budget proposal devotes significant resources for law enforcement actions against drug traffickers, for protecting public lands from illicit drug cultivation, and for drug interdiction. Internationally, the budget supports a balanced and strategic approach that would strengthen partner nations and reduce the drug supply to the United States. At the same time, the budget would strengthen the drug enforcement capabilities of partner nations in order to reduce the drug supply to the United States through programs such as continuing the Merida Initiative with Mexico, a newly-developed Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, and augmented support for Western Hemisphere programs.
For more information visit: www.WhiteHouseDrugPolicy.gov
photo: kissthis
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OV Social
Ending prohiibition, for once and for all, is low-hanging fiscal fruit . The way forward is to repeal the CSA and the SCN. Release all inmates incarcerated under the defunct act, if they were convicted of no other crime . Convert the empty prisons to homeless shelters. Dedicate all sales tax from sales of formerly scheduled substances to a reparations fund to redress damages to life, estate, and reputation of those prosecuted under the defunct CSA. There is no baby in this bloodbath- water . Start a drug policy fresh with a clean slate. Only with liberty can we track drug-use intentions, dosages, side-effects, settings, and outcomes, so as find best practices to achieve intentions with minimal risk to self, others, and the public. One would think that the national embarrassment of needing to spend a whole constitutional amendment just to say "oops, what were we thinking about prohibition ?" would have been a lesson to prohibitionists, but one would be wrong .
What about all the people that are "legally" addicted to their valium, xanax, and all the other crap that the pharma companies are shoving down our throats. When is the issue that we are over prescribing these crutches going to be brought to the forefront?
Look,we have already spent over 1 trillion dollars and there is more drugs than ever,so lets not call it the war on drugs ,announce we are going to use a new strategy,and we can choke another 15 billion out of this chicken.
Braindead mfrs
Can you believe he has the gall to make a comment about doing the same thing every year,and expecting any different outcome?
But of course,that is a logical thought,and the war on drugs has no logic to it