Marijuana news about National Drug Control Strategy, drug, Stopping Drug Use Before It Starts, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

National Drug Control Strategy
TODAY'S ACTION
Today, ONDCP Director John Walters will unveil the President's new National Drug Control Strategy for 2003 focusing on three core priorities: stopping drug use before it starts, healing America's drug users and disrupting the market.
The 2003 strategy reports progress toward meeting the President's goals of reducing drug use by 10 percent over two years, and 25 percent over five years, highlighted by reductions in drug use among young people for the first time in nearly a decade. The 2003 strategy also highlights a new treatment initiative funded with $600 million over three years to help addicted Americans find needed treatment and support services from the most effective programs, including faith-based and community-based organizations. Key Points on the National Drug Control Strategy
The strategy proposes a fiscal year 2004 budget of $11.7 billion for drug control serving three core priorities:
Stopping drug use before it starts
Healing America's drug users
Disrupting the market
Stopping Drug Use (marijuana, cannabis, heroin, LSD, XTC and more) Before It Starts: Continuing the initial reductions in drug use by young people will require action by all Americans through education and community involvement. In homes, schools, places of worship, the workplace, and civic and social organizations, Americans must set standards that reaffirm the values of responsibility and good citizenship while dismissing the image that drug use is consistent with individual freedom. America's children must learn from an early age that avoiding drug use is an expectation and lifelong responsibility.

The strategy ties national leadership with community-level action to help recreate the formula that has helped America succeed against drugs in the past. The President's budget backs up this goal with a $10 million increase in funding for the expanded Drug-Free Communities Support Program, along with providing $5 million for a new Parents Drug Corps.
In fiscal year, 2004, the strategy proposes that tools such as student drug testing be available in communities where parents and educators deem them appropriate, and funds them with $8 million.
Healing America's Drug Users: Despite substantial drug prevention efforts, some 16 million Americans still use drugs on a monthly basis, and roughly six million meet the clinical criteria for needing drug treatment. Yet the overwhelming majority of users in need of drug treatment fail to recognize their need. The second core priority of the strategy emphasizes the crucial need for family, friends, and former addicts to intercede with and support those fighting to overcome substance abuse. Drug users also need the support of institutions and the people who run them— employers, law enforcement agencies, faith-based and community-based organizations, and health care providers, among others—to help them recognize their drug addiction and to seek treatment.


	Overall, for 2004, the Administration proposes $3.6 billion for drug treatment, an increase of 8.2 percent over 2003. The 2004 request includes new funding of $200 million ($600 million over three years) for a new treatment initiative to provide drug treatment to individuals otherwise unable to obtain access to services. People in need of treatment, no matter where they are—emergency rooms, health clinics, the criminal justice system, schools—will receive an evidence-based assessment of their treatment need and will be issued vouchers to obtain help at effective treatment organizations, including faith-based and community-based organizations. Disrupting the Market: The third priority of the strategy seeks to capitalize on the engagement of producer and transit countries like Colombia and Mexico in order to address the drug trade as a business—one that faces numerous and often overlooked obstacles that may be used as pressure points. The drug trade is not an unstoppable force of nature but rather a profit-making enterprise where costs and rewards exist in an equilibrium that can be disrupted. Every action that makes the drug trade more costly and less profitable is a step toward “breaking” the market. Drug traffickers are in business to make money. We intend to deny them that revenue. (marijuana, cannabis, heroin, LSD, XTC and more) To help secure America’s borders, the President’s budget includes $2.1 billion for drug interdiction, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2003. Internationally, the Administration will continue to target the supply of illegal drugs in the source countries. The Administration is requesting $731 million in dedicated funds in 2004 for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative to be applied in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. To ensure unity of effort, the strategy advocates the use of a single list (the Consolidated Priority Organization Targeting list) identifying high-level targets among the various agencies involved in domestic drug law enforcement. Progress Toward The President’s Two- and Five-Year Goals: Only the first year of the two-year goal period has elapsed, yet already the goal of reducing current drug use by 10 percent among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, as measured by the Monitoring the Future survey, is well on the way to being met (with reductions of 11.1, 8.4, and 1.2 percent respectively). Adjustments to the measuring baseline for the goals have been prompted by discontinuities in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA). As a result, the goal of reducing drug use among adults will still be measured by the NHSDA, but the baseline has been reset to the 2002 survey, which is not released until midyear 2003. Federal Drug Control Spending By Function FY 2002–FY 2004 (Budget Authority in Millions) National Drug Control Budget Summary Drug Control Funding: Agency Summary FY 2002–FY 2004