24 February 2005
White House Issues 2005 National Drug Control Strategy Report
Main goals are curbing drug use, disrupting drug trade
By Lauren Monsen
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Bush administration is pursuing an aggressive three-pronged strategy to combat the problem of illegal drug use in the United States, says the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
With the February release of its annual report, "The President's National Drug Control Strategy," the ONDCP outlined an approach designed to meet three essential goals: to stop drug use before it begins, to get drug addicts into treatment programs, and to disrupt the illegal drug trade.
The first goal -- preventing drug abuse -- requires education and community action, according to the ONDCP report. The ONDCP report examines and endorses a variety of prevention programs (including school- and community-based programs, student drug-testing programs, and public service advertisements), but it cites "significant parental involvement" as the most vital factor in deterring young people from using illegal drugs or alcohol.
The ONDCP's second goal -- to heal America's drug users by getting treatment resources where they are needed -- relies heavily on court-ordered treatment programs for drug offenders, often as an alternative to jail. The establishment of so-called "drug courts" represents "another approach to handling drug-dependent individuals who are arrested for non-violent offenses, such as theft, arising from their drug-using behavior," says the ONDCP. "Drug courts use the authority of a judge to coerce abstinence through a combination of clear expectations and careful supervision -- a remarkable example of a public health approach linked to a public safety strategy."
The third goal -- disrupting the operations of drug traffickers -- requires the U.S. government to coordinate with law-enforcement authorities in other countries where drug cartels are active. By working closely with its international partners, the United States hopes "to disrupt the market for illegal drugs" in a way that "both reduces the profitability of the drug trade and increases the costs of drugs to consumers," the ONDCP explains. "In other words, we seek to inflict on this business what every legal business fears -- escalating costs, diminishing profits, and unreliable suppliers."
Because Colombia and Mexico are among those countries that supply a substantial portion of the illegal drugs consumed in the United States, their governments are valuable U.S. allies in the fight against drug traffickers, the ONDCP adds. The United States assists Colombia in eradicating illicit coca crops so that the plants cannot be harvested and processed into cocaine, and the administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has made the dismantling of drug cartels a top priority. Similarly, law enforcement agents within the government of Mexican President Vicente Fox regularly work with U.S. agents to disrupt trafficking networks and drug trans-shipment routes.
The ONDCP points out that President Bush's Fiscal Year 2006 budget request strongly supports U.S. drug-control policy goals, as well. For instance, the State Department's Andean Counterdrug Initiative has requested $734.5 million in funding, which will ensure continued U.S. assistance to Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama in such areas as law enforcement, border control, illicit crop reduction, development of alternative livelihoods for coca farmers and other regional programs.
In sum, "the U.S. government, in concert with international allies, is seeking to target [drug] networks by attacking entire business sectors, such as the transporter sector," the ONDCP says. Its report presents examples of this strategy, "including destroying the economic basis of the cocaine production business in South America by fumigating the coca crop, seizing enormous and unsustainable amounts of cocaine from transporters, and selectively targeting major [drug] organization heads for law enforcement action and, ultimately, extradition and prosecution in the United States."
The text of the ONDCP report is available online at: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/policy/ndcs05/
The ONDCP’s annual report on international narcotics strategy is scheduled for release on March 1.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=February&x=20050224150859GLnesnoM0.769787&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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