For millions of Americans, substance use progresses to a point where brief interventions are not sufficient to promote recovery Addiction treatment can be a critical—even lifesaving—resource in such situations, but only if it is readily available and of high quality.  Making recovery possible is, therefore, key to effective drug control, and the Obama Administration’s Strategy focuses on:  1)  Expanding addiction treatment in community health centers and within the Indian Health Service,  2)  Supporting the development of new medications to treat addiction and implementation of medication-assisted treatment protocols and 3)  The importance of domestic law enforcement, border control, and international cooperation.  DOWNLOAD THE STRATEGY STATEMENT IN PDF

Lets hope it does all of that.  The Obama administration has been talking about addiction in the context of being a medical problem which is a key definition.  Once that understanding makes it mainstream, we can expect to end some of the incredible gut wrenching madness that families endure simply to save their loved ones from a fate worse that most can imagine.  Check out Julia Negron’s poignant comment on the subject in Mom’s United…

Regarding the demoralizing “drug war”,  leaders from Mexico, Brazil and Columbia have endorsed the Vienna Declaration which lists a range of harms stemming from the war on drugs, and notes that the criminalization of people who use drugs has resulted in record high incarceration rates, thereby placing a massive burden on taxpayers.  The Vienna Declaration calls on governments and international organizations, including the United Nations, to take a number of steps, 2 of which are:  1)  Endorsing and scaling up funding for the drug treatment and harm reduction measures endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations  and 2)  scaling up evidence-based drug dependence treatment options.  Links by Mary S.