New U.S. Drug Strategy
Still Heavy on Enforcement
By Matthew O. Berger
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Along with an
expanded focus on domestic prevention
and treatment, the U.S. will make a
renewed effort to disrupt the flow of
narcotics into its borders and weapons
and money out of them, according to the
White House's long-anticipated National
Drug Control Strategy released Tuesday.
"This strategy calls for a balanced
approach to confronting the complex
challenge of drug use and its
consequences," said President Barack
Obama. "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."
The strategy is the culmination of a
series of efforts undertaken by the
Obama administration's rethinking of the
largely ineffective or even
counterproductive drug-related measures
of past administrations. But some say
there is still a long way to go.
"Time will tell whether the Obama
administration's promising new rhetoric
focused on drugs as a public health
challenge will be matched by durable
shifts in policy," said John Walsh,
senior associate for drug policy at the
Washington Office on Latin America, "but
the deliberate decision to turn down the
drug war propaganda is important in
itself."
Administration officials have renounced
the term "war on drugs" since last May.
"Calling it a war really limits your
resources," the director of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy, Gil
Kerlikowske, told reporters Tuesday.
"Looking at this as both a public safety
problem and a public health problem
seems to make a lot of sense."
Kerlikowske said the policy should
"reduce our drug use at home…and the
consequences of illicit drug trafficking
and abuse".
"The Obama administration is strongly
committed to pursuing a balanced
strategy," he said.
The first signs that this
administration's drug strategy might
deviate from that of past
administrations came over a year ago,
when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton made the unprecedented public
acknowledgement of the U.S.'s role in
the fuelling drug violence in Mexico and
elsewhere.
"We know very well that the drug
traffickers are motivated by the demand
for illegal drugs in the United States
and that they are armed by the transport
of weapons from the United States," she
said in a March 2009 visit to the U.S.'s
southern neighbour.
The strategy released Tuesday continues
to recognise this U.S. role in
international drug trafficking. It also
aims to deepen partnerships with the
countries affected by that trafficking.
"The United States is one of the world's
most lucrative markets for illegal
drugs. It is in our interest to work
collaboratively with international
partners to reduce the global drug
trade," it says.
Those collaborations will include joint
law enforcement operations to disrupt
the flow of drugs and money, help in
building stronger institutions in
partner countries, and the promotion of
alternative livelihoods for coca and
opium farmers. The new policy also aims
to expand support for international
prevention and treatment initiatives.
In terms of reducing demand within the
U.S. it would, among other initiatives,
reduce by 15 percent the rate of youth
drug use, the number of chronic drug
users and the incidence of drug-induced
deaths within the next five years.
Kerlikowske said his office tried to
have as many different voices as
possible involved, including those of
various countries. He said this input is
"reflected in the final strategy".
"Every nation is dealing with increasing
numbers of people using illicit drugs,"
he said, noting that Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe has told him that Colombia
is not just a producer but a consumer of
drugs.
Kerlikowske hopes this new drug strategy
"can provide assistance to our
international partners as they respond
to the drug problem". He cited the
opening of Mexico's first drug court
last year in Monterrey as an example of
a "productive relationship" as well as
the vast body of research on
drug-related issues done in the U.S.,
saying "we have those kinds of tools to
give to other countries".
But critics pointed to what the
announcement of the strategy left out -
that the drug control budget proposal
continues to include much more money for
overseas and domestic enforcement than
for reducing demand for drugs.
Citing his analysis that the percentages
of money allotted to each are about the
same as they were under the George W.
Bush administration, Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, says that "there's little
doubt that this administration seriously
wants to distance itself from the
rhetoric of the drug war, but its new
plan makes clear that it is still
addicted to the reality of the drug
war."
WOLA and Nadelmann both point out that
these budget numbers gloss over the
costs of prosecuting and incarcerating
people for drug-related crimes.
"Few Americans - and even fewer Latin
Americans - would consider the
decades-long 'drug war' to have been a
success, and people across the Americas
are eager for more effective and humane
approaches," said Walsh.
He hopes policies along that line follow
the administration's new rhetoric. |
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