U.S. Drug Policy: Our Strategy

Decades of scientific study show that drug addiction is not a moral failing on the part of the individual—but a disease of the brainthat can be prevented and treated. And while smart law enforcement efforts will always play a vital role in protecting communities from drug-related crime and violence, the Obama Administration has remained clear that we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem through an enforcement-centric “war on drugs.”

The Facts: Drug Use in America and the Administration Response

• The rate of overall drug use in America has dropped by roughly one-third over the past three decades. Since 2006 , meth use in America has been cut by half and cocaine use has dropped by nearly 40 percent.
• In Fiscal Year 2012, the U.S. Federal Government spent $10.1 billion on drug prevention and treatment vs. $9.4 billion on domestic law enforcement and incarceration, $3.6 billion on interdiction, and $2.1 billion on international drug control programs.
• Each year, specialized drug courts supported by the Obama Administration divert approximately 120,000 non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of jail. Today, there are over 2,600 of these courts in operation in the United States and growing.
• Cocaine production in Colombia – the source of 95 percent of the cocaine in the United States – has dropped by almost two-thirds since 2001.

Today, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the 2012 National Drug Control Strategy, the Obama Administration’s primary blueprint for drug policy in the United States. The Strategy reviews the progress we have made during the past three years and also looks ahead to our continuing efforts to reform, rebalance, and renew our national drug control policy to address the public health and public safety challenges of the 21st century. Specifically, the new Strategy is guided by three facts: addiction is a disease that can be treated; people with substance use disorders can recover; and innovative new criminal justice reforms can stop the revolving door of drug use, crime, incarceration, and re-arrest.

A Balanced Approach: Administration Drug Policy by Action Item

A full copy of the 2012 National Drug Control Strategy is available here.

Click hereto download the infographic: “Obama Administration Drug Policy: A Record of Reform”

Click hereto see videos and read more about innovative alternatives to drug control supported by the Obama Administration.